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Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary/  Medicine 
Cummings  School  of  Veterinarv  Medicine  at 

2C  ?  ■.  : 

Nortn  Grafiofi,  MA  01536 


FLAT-RACING  EXPLAINED. 


FLAT-RACING 

EXPLAINED 


BY 

'ANALYST 


A    PRACTICAL     TREATISE     ON     RACING,    DE- 
SIGNED TO  MEET  THE  REQUIREMENTS 
OF  OWNERS,  BREEDERS,  TRAIN- 
ERS, JOCKEYS,    AND    THE 
GENERAL    PUBLIC. 


NEW  YORK 

GOODWIN  BROS. 

1440  Broadway 
London:    EDMUND  SEALE 


Copyright  1899. 


BY    EXPRESS    PERMISSION     THIS    WORK    IS    DEDICATED 

TO 

THE  RIGiHT  HONOURABLE 

THE  EARL  OF  DURHAM 

(SENIOR  STEWARD   OF  THE  JOCKEY  CLUB.) 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  submitting  this  work  to  the  sporting  public,  es- 
peciailly  those  so  well  recognized  as  taking  an  intelli- 
gent as  well  as  a  lively  interest  in  the  thoroughbred 
and  his  doings,  I  desire  it  will  be  understood  that  prac- 
tical information,  rather  than  literary  production,  has 
alone  'been  aimed  at. 

The  work  is  not  to  be  regarded  in  any  sense  as  having 
exhausted  the  various  subjects  with  which  it  deals. 
It  is  intended,  in  its  inception,  as  merely  the  grounds 
work  upon  which  it  is  hoped  in  the  future  to  erect  a 
literary  edifice  worthy  the  traditions  of  the  greatest 
of  our  national  pastimes. 

That  a  work  of  the  kind  was  needed,  to  mark  out 
more  clearly  the  dlistinguishing  features  of  racing,  will, 
I  think,  be  found  to  have  been  exemiplified  at  every 
step  that  has  been  taken  throughout  the  investig'ation 
of  the  various  sulbjects  treated  upon. 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

When  it  is  indelibly  realized  tliat  in  racing,  as  in 
mathematics,  deviation  from  a  straig^it  line  proves  the 
longer  way  round,  perhaps  the  part  scientific  demon- 
s'tration  must  yet  play,  to  increase  enlightenment,  and 
make  more  effedtive  ordinary  "understanding,"  will 
not  be  overlooked. 

After  some  years  of  attentive  study  and  very  close 
observaition  I  desire  to  express  the  gratification  it  was 
to  me  that  manj'  results  at  which  I  had  arrived  should 
have  met  with  confirmation  by  the  'timely  act  of  Lord 
Durham  in  the  famous  speech  he  delivered  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  G-imcrack  Clu)b  Meeting  held  at  York  in 
Deceintoer  la&t. 

Commenting,  as  I  trust  1  may  'be  permitted  to  do,  on 
the  subject  of  a  speech  conitaining,  as  it  did,  so  much 
of  the  highest  value  and  importance  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  turf,  perhaps  it  will  not  be  deemed  out 
of  place  if  I  take  the  liberty  of  reminding  his  lordship 
that  It  W9,s  the  extreme  accuracy  of  the  incident3  and 
circumgitancps  to  which  he  referred,  cotupled  with  re- 
sults most  clearly  defined  in  all  that  appeared,  that  led 
to  the  present  work  iDeing  puiblished. 

When  his  lordship  said,  "It  had  been  a  year  of  medi- 
ocrity. They  had  had  moderate  horses,  moderate  rid- 
ing, moderate  racing,  and  moderate  handicapping," 
nothing  better  to  the  purpose  could  have  been  ex- 
pressed, and  the  pubjic  in  general  certainly  owe  a  dpbt 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

of   ig-i-atitude    to   Lord    Durham    for    having   put    those 
words  on  record. 

I  must  apologize  that  in  the  course  of  the  work  in 
some  respects  repetition  became  unavoidable. 

I  have  to  thank  several  gentlemen  for  at  times  giving 
me  access  to  notes  containing  points  in  racing  results 
of  undoubted  interest  and  value— so  important,  indeed, 
in  one  or  two  respects  that  I  regret  I  am  not  permitted 
to  render  my  acknowledgments  to  them  in  name.  They, 
too,  like  myself,  prefer  to  be  unknown  rather  than  bask 
in  the  sunshine  of  publicity. 

ANALYST. 

March,  1SD9. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction  .  .  .  .  -;      ^ 

CHAPTER  I. 

BREEDING. 

Delight  men  take  in  Iiorses— S'tandard  of  the  thor- 
oughbred— Celebrities  in  times  past— Eclipse  v. 
Victor  Wild— Question  of  excellence— Scientific 
ibreediiiig-—'Weeds'—Fashiion— Breeders  for  sale— 
Sale-ringr  .  .  .  .  .  .1-8 

CHAPTER  II. 

BREEDING  (continued). 
Private  breeders — ^Horses  of  superb  physique — Con- 
formation—What is  physique?— Bone  and  mus- 
cle—Spinal structure— Hindquarters  set  some- 
what obliquely  on^Hindquarter  ipropulsion — 
Under-reach— Spinal  structure  the  mainspring  in 
the  mechanism  of  the  race-horse — Why  horses 
tire  so  quickly— Nature's  restorer— Horses  per- 
mitted to  roll  on  their  backs— Back  of  a  horse 
curves— Want  of  anatomical  insight— Natural 
laws  wrongly  put  aside— TAppeal  to  owners  to  pro- 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

vide  for  horses  rolHing-— Hunt  horses,  too— Character 
of  'Place  required— Directions— Buyers  forewarned 
as  to  selection  of  horses— (Spinal  strengith— Well- 
developed  dock— Exception  rare  .  .  .  9-15 


CHAPTER  III. 

HORSES. 

Career  when  puiblished— Topic  of  horses— Pedigree 
—Racing-  opinions,  how  regarded— Quesition  of  2  lb. 
weight— Genuine  and  falsely  run  races— 'One  run 
or  dash'  method  of  racing— Admiral  Rous  on  the 
principles  of  handicapping— Horses  run  fastest 
when  carrying  biggest  burden— Reputafion  for  dis- 
tances—Six  furlong  horses— Two-year-olds  at  Ep- 
som and  Ascot — Racing  governed  by  gradient— 
Jeddah  in  the  Derby  and  St.  Lege r— Eccentricities 
in   running 16-24 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HORSES  (continued). 

Fallacy  in  handicaps— Weight-for-age  races  when 
turned  into  handicaps— Adaptabiliity  of  horses  for 
gradients— On  different  ground— Mixture  of  horses 
in  training  slaibles- Why  horses  do  not  win  races- 
Supposed  'bad'  horses— 'Mannerisms'  of  horses— 
•Horses    for    eourses'  .....  25-30 


CHAPTER  V. 

HORSES  (continued). 

Dissimilanity  in  running  of  horses — ^Wind  or  lung 
capacity— Running  distance  a  cultivated  art— When 
£50  plateis   and    four-mile    heats    existed^Stayir)^ 


CONTENTS.  xi 

PAGE 

powers  V.  muscular  powers— Result  of  'waiting'  in 
races— Hig-h  speed— How  to  recharge  tiie  lungs 
wirth  air— Short-distance  horses  can  be  raced  over 
longer  distances— Victor  Wild  as  a  cup  horse— All- 
round  horses— La  F16che— Performances  unsur- 
passed during  present  century— Suggestion  as  to 
skeleton  being  preserved  in  the  cause  of  anatomical 
science  ......  31-36 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OWNERS  A>D  TRAINERS. 

Character  of  duties  of  a  trainer— Ait  home  and  away 
—His  Obligations  to  Ms  employers— ^Management 
of  horses— StaJble  secrets— 'Sensitive  horses— The  re- 
sults of  mistakes  in  training — What  happens  in 
cases  such  as  Ingeibrigt— The  effects  of  racing  on 
wrong  gr'adients— Want  of  skill  dn  the  placing  of 
horses— Owners'  mistakes— Trainers'  blunders— Ill- 
placed  horses  in  races- The  result— High  and  low 
»peea  .......  57-45 


CHAPTER  VII. 

JOCKEYg. 

When  they  do  not  win— Much  belauded  when  they  do 
—The  art  of  race-riding— Fordham  and  Archer— 
The  American  jockeys  Simims  and  Rieff — Scientific 
iMing— Racing  opinion  of  It— Sloan  rides  to  time- 
Sea^  on  the  withers— <Style  and  method  of  riding- 
fully  explained — Curve  in  horse's  back— (How  it  can 
be  seen — Recoil  in  horse's  stride— 'How  'recoil'  af- 
fects speed-^Horses  that  'dwell'  in  their  stride- 
Origin  explained— Beaten  horses— What  is  speed?— 
The  effect  of  air  in  horses'  lungs— Lung^  capacity 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

in  horses— Distress  in  horses— Fast  and  slow  racing 
— I.imit  of  lung  capacity,  1V4  miles— Above  IM,  or 
races  of  l^/^  miles,  horses  reinflate— English  jockeys 
not  acquired  the  art— Sloan's  scientific  method- 
Peter  and  the  Royal  Hunt  Cup— Rockdove  in  the 
Cesarewitch— Georgic's  running— Jockeys  ride  to 
orders— Period  of  time  in  racing-stable- Effect  of 
'waiting'  in  racing — Holding  against  horse  acts  as  a 
lever— Waste  of  energy— High  as  distinguished 
from  excessive  speed — Young  jockeys  riding  on 
Sloan  model  ......  46-67 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HANDICAPS. 

Major  Egerton— Principle  of  handiicaps— How  com- 
piled—Educated esbimate— 'Best  and  worst  form 
idea— Failure  to  make  racing  fair— Made  on  basis 
of  level  course — Dry  ground  and  /wet  ground— Royal 
Hunt  Cup  course  at  Ascot— Reserv^ed  horses— Close 
finishes— jHow  these  arise— Handicaps  should  be 
done  away  wiith— Suggested  method  of  weights— 
The  Derby  Cup— Supposed  'science'  of  handicap- 
ping .......  68-76 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WEIGHTS. 

Weights  founded  on  estimate- Races  run  on  a  single 
course — Equal  and  unequal  terms— Racing  on  basis 
of  estimate— *No  weight  will  bring  certain  horses 
together— Good  and  bad  horses— Suggested  modifi- 
cation— Scientific  conditions— Owners  and  trainers 
—Knowledge  of  form—Handicap  run  on  different 
courses— Weight  governed  by  rule— Scale  revised  in 


CONTENTS.  xiii 


PAGE 

1873  requires  further  revision— Nursery  handicaps 
—Weights  when  'guesswork'— Weights  assigned 
by  merit — Weights  governed  by  scale — Horses  di- 
vided into  classes— Unknown  merit  governed  by 
rule— Weight  for  two-year-olds— Principle  of  ad- 
justing weights  should  be  made  gradual  in  opera- 
tion   77-86 


CHAPTER  X. 


COURSES. 


Believed  to  be  the  best  in  the  world— All  differ  in  for- 
mation—Clerks of  courses— Surveys  not  made- 
Why  there  is  contradictory  running— Gradients— 
What  should  be  done— Distance  and  level— Surface 
measurements— Running  distances— Racing  on 
rolled  grass— Management  of  courses  on  Newmar- 
ket Heath  ......  87-93 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TIME. 

Records  of  races  4,000  in  number— Value  of  the  use 
of  the  watch— How  to  use  it— Racing  and  non-rac- 
ing horses — Wet-ground  and  dry-ground  horses — 
Horses  for  level  or  incline  only — Angle  in  physical 
construction  of  horses  at  present  unknown— Rel- 
ative speed  in  horses — Horses  repeat  performances 
— Workington's  running — Amphion's  fastest  race — 
Best  Man  not  of  the  Mellon  tribe— Florizel  II.       .  94-102 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TIME  (continued). 

Time:  how  applied  to  placed  horses-^Georgic's  speed 
at  Manchester  and  at  Newmarket— Georgic  com- 


xiv  CONTENTS, 

FAOK 

pared  with  other  horses— Rodomont— Speed,  dis- 
tance and  gradient— La  Pl^che  In  the  Derfl>y  and 
the  Oaks— La  Fl&che's  running  in  the  Carnibrldge- 
shire 103-109 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

TIME  (continued). 

St.  Prusquin  when  beaten  by  Teufel-^St.  Frusquin 
and  the  Middle  Park  Plate— Teufel,  how  reg-arded 
in  the  future— Sporting  writers— All  races  should 
be  oflicially  timed — Speed  of  horses  differs  on  every 
course — 'Track-riding'   on  grass  courses       .       .  110-116 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NAMING  HORSES. 

Should  unnamed  horses  be  permitted  to  compete  for 
public  stakes?— The  late  Lord  Glasgow — Why  he 
did  not  name  his  horses— The  'jargon  of  the  ring' 
—Why  the  horse  General  Peel  was  so  named— 
Pleasing  and  suii table  names  for  horses — Names 
should  not  exceed  ten  letters— Practice  of  naming 
horses  as  now  adopted  should  be  discontinued- 
Vain  attempts  at  erudition— Ill-named  horses  and 
turf  history— Suggested  names  of  places  in  British 
colonies,    etc.  .  .  .  .  .  117-122 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TIPSTERS. 

What  the  best  interests  of  the  turf  demand— Best  in- 
terests bemg  assailed— Tipsters  increase  year  by 
year— Their    misrepresentations    and    aids— Adver- 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGE 

tisements,  circulars  and  pamphlets— Profits— Pal  ice 
court  records— Bookmakers  prosecuted— 'Moralists' 
—Mr.  Dunn  and  'Mr.  Tipster'— Betting  not  illegal— 
Legitimate  and  illegitimate  backers— Victims  of 
the  tipster— The  law  should  be  made  to  stop  the 
promulgation  of  inducement— Persons  should  alone 
bet  by  their  own  initiation,  and  not  at  the  insitance 
of  o-thers— What  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  is    .  123-128 


Flat-Racing  Explained^ 


CHAPTER  I. 


BREEDING. 


The  delight  which  men  take  in  horses  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  British  Isles,  nor  to  any  portion  of  Her 
Majesty's  dominions.  The  feeling  is  universal 
throughout  the  world,  wherever  men  and  horses 
exist.  From  very  early  times  the  British  have  been 
a  horse-loving  people,  and  as  a  natural  consequence 
improvement  in  the  several  breeds  has  been  pursued 
with  the  utmost  possible  care  by  successive  genera- 
tions, and  at  the  present  it  is  a  moot  question  if  a 
higher  point  of  excellence  can  under  any  circum- 
stances be  attained. 

However,  in  the  study  of  the  thoroughbred  no 
country  has  been  so  pertinacious  as  our  own,  and  I 
think  it  may  be  safely  said,  in  development  and 


2  FLAT -RACING     EXPLAINED. 

general  characteristics,  we  have  not  only  surpassed 
every  other,  but  we  have  been  the  medium  of  all 
that  is  possessed  elsewhere  in  these  essential  par- 
ticulars. 

Since  racing  was  first  inaugurated  in  this  country, 
we  have  made  great  strides  in  the  number  and  qual- 
ity of  our  thoroughbreds.  In  years  gone  by,  as  in 
more  recent  times,  of  course  horses  of  exceptional 
character  and  merit  came,  as  it  were,  to  the  front, 
and  historically  have  been  handed  down  to  us  as 
examples  to  be  followed,  on  account  of  the  great 
achievements  they  performed.  For  sucli  we  have 
the  most  profound  admiration,  knowing  full  well 
what  we  have  to-day  amongst  our  equine  celebrities 
we  owe  to  previous  generations,  to  long  strains  of 
blood  chosen  from  the  best  running  blood  of  pre- 
vious times. 

It  is  of  very  great  interest  whether  the  standard 
of  the  thoroughbred  has  advanced  or  retrograded 
with  time,  and  whether  we  have  at  the  present  a 
class  of  animal  superior  or  inferior  to  those  our 
forefathers  had  a  generation  or  two  ago.  Unfoi- 
tunately,  there  is  nothing  to  tell  us  this.  We  might 
go  back  to  the  celebrities  at  any  period  we  might 
choose  to  select,  and  relatively  we  are  without  the 
least  guide  that  would  say  whether  they  were  of 
greater  or  of  lesser  degi'ee,  in  point  of  superiority 


BREEDING.  3 

and  excellence,  than  those  we  have  to-day.  Upon 
the  point  there  is  just  this,  that,  if  we  except  what 
are  called  the  "classic  races,"  there  are  no  certain 
or  ascertained  facts  to  judge  by. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  to  place  reliauce  on  han- 
dicap running  as  any  sort  of  guide  to  relative  su- 
periority, such  as  is  referred  to,  so  we  are  left  to 
glean  what  we  can  from  weight-for-age  races.  If 
we  take  by  way  of  test  the  winners  of  the  Derby  or 
St.  Leger  at  particular  times  in  the  past,  and  en- 
deavor to  compare  them  with  the  winners  of  those 
races  in  recent  years,  the  only  possible  link  is  de- 
rived from  the  published  time  in  which  the  respec- 
tive races  were  run.  This  in  itself  is  of  no  value 
whatever,  unless  accompanied  with  accurate  details 
of  the  climatic  conditions  that  existed,  and,  above 
all,  the  precise  state  the  ground  was  in.  But  even 
with  these  data  to  go  upon,  only  a  general  idea  can 
be  arrived  at,  leaving  practically  all  else  undeter- 
mined. 

However,  to  show  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to 
deduce  anything  from  the  stated  time  in  which  races 
were  run,  in  the  almost  forgotten  age  when  that 
splendid  horse  Eclipse  carried  all  before  him,  we 
have  only  to  call  to  mind  that  that  celebrity  was 
accredited  with  having  covered  a  mile  in  the  utterly 
impossible  time  of  one  tninute.     Whatever  Eclipse 


4  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

might  have  beeu  iu  the  flesh  as  a  race  horse,  I  think, 
by  way  of  comparison,  we  may  judge  him  iu  point 
of  merit  on  the  record  of  that  superb  mller — on  a 
flat  course — Victor  Wild,  and  he  was  only  able  to  do 
the  distance  in  Im,  39i/4s.,  and  this,  too,  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions  for  securing  an  accurate 
test  for  speed.  How  Eclipse  could  have  been  cred- 
ited with  doing  a  mile  in  39i/^  seconds  less  time  it  is 
impossible  to  say,  but  I  am  quite  sure  we  have  had 
no  other  horse  in  this  country,  during  my  experi- 
ence, that  could  have  beaten  Victor  Wild's  time. 

That  the  time  I  have  given  was  correct  does  noi 
admit  of  doubt,  though  I  am  quite  aware  that  th«i 
times  of  races  as  we  often  see  them  in  print  are  not 
always  to  be  relied  upon.  Therefore,  when  we  iind 
it  stated  that  Eclipse  did  a  mile  in  the  short  spact^  of 
00  seconds,  it  is  incorrect  on  the  fact  of  it,  or  Victor 
Wild  would  comparatively  have  been  only  a  very 
moderate  horse  at  his  best. 

As  I  have  said,  it  is  a  question  if  a  higher  point  of 
excellence  can  be  attained  in  our  thoroughbreds,  i 
think  I  might  also  couple  with  it  the  question 
whether  a  "higher  point"  is  iCally  desirable.  How 
ever,  our  breeders'  answer  is  in  the  aflarmative,  and 
by  the  aid  of  "scientific  breeding"  we  may  await 
results  in  the  future  which  will  be  a  surprise  to  us,  if 
all  we  are  told  is  true.     Of  what  is  called  "scientific 


11 


BREEDING.  5 

breeding,"  in  the  sense  of  producing  a  better  class 
of  race  horse  than  we  have  been  familiar  with,  I  am 
afraid,  like  the  majority  of  people,  I  am  not  a  little 
sceptical. 

We  know,  however,  that  breeders,  taking  them  as 
a  body,  are  both  zealous  and  enterprising,  and  not 
easily  balked  when  ditficulties  must  necessarily  be 
overcome.  But  if  "scientific  breeding"  is  to  be  taken 
as  the  outcome  of  mating  on  the  method  of  fusing 
certain  strains  of  blood,  with  no  other  object  than  to 
peri)etuate  a  particular  line  on  the  "heir-male"  prin- 
ciple, I  am  bound  to  say  that  my  knowledge  and 
breeding  experience  do  not  lead  me  to  suppose  it  will 
be  attended  with  satisfactory  results.  To  perpet- 
uate the  best  running  blood  in  a  race  horse,  there 
cannot  be  doubt,  is  both  sound  in  principle  and  cor- 
rect in  judgment.  But  to  seek  to  perpetuate  the 
best  running  blood  by  fusion,  in  the  way  that  is 
said,  when  both  sire  and  dam  possess  this  qualifica- 
tion, I  believe  to  be  thoroughly  inexpedient. 

It  may  be  that  those  who  advocate  "scientific 
breeding"  on  the  lines  I  have  said  may  have  this  in 
view,  and  if  so  they  have  me  so  far  on  their  side. 
What  I  object  to  is  that  the  subject  of  conformation, 
the  external  qualities  in  a  race  horse,  should  play 
the  comparatively  insignificant  part  it  does  in  the 
estimation  of  t)re^er§>    We  Jiuow,  of  course,  that 


6  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

breeding  has  its  linaucial  asi^ect.  Putting  that 
aside,  if  the  aim  and  end  is  the  production  of  higher 
characteristics  than  we  yet  have  in  tlie  thorough- 
bred, my  humble  judgment  goes  to  the  point,  not 
that  we  shall  get  it  by  fusion  on  the  heir-male  prin- 
ciple, nor  by  the  peri>etuation  of  the  best  running 
blood  in  combination,  as  I  have  above  said.  Rather 
by  the  perpetuation  of  the  best  running  blood  on  the 
one  side  only,  in  combination  with  conformation  on 
the  other  side,  tending  to  supply  points  in  frame  con- 
struction either  absent  or  requiring  development,  as 
the  case  may  be. 

As  "weeds"  are  useless  as  race-horses,  and  it  is 
therefore  ruination  to  breed  them,  however  good  the 
blood  may  be  in  their  veins,  surely,  in  the  absence 
of  exception  to  strain  on  special  grounds,  the  first 
of  primary  condition  in  the  production  of  race-horses 
is  conformation  and  general  racing  characteristics^ — 
in  the  sense  that  the  highest  running  qualifications 
should  be  associated  with  the  best  possible  model  in 
point  of  frame. 

That  "scientific  breeding"  is  destined  to  give  us 
conformation  and  racing  style  remains  to  be  seen, 
but  for  my  part  I  should  be  disposed  to  think  the 
proportion  of  horses  lacking  in  substance,  and  not 
of  the  wear  and  tear  sort,  will  be  sensibly  increased. 
As  it  is,  in  the  matter  of  breeding  there  m  only  a  low 


BREEDING.  7 

percentage  of  good  horses  'turned  out  year  by  year, 
compared  with  the  indifferent  and  rank  bad  ones.  I 
refer  to  the  running  horses,  or  those  which  find  their 
way  into  training  establishments,  as  distinguished 
from  the  very  large  number  that  are  bred,  many  of 
which  never  leave  the  breeders'  premises,  or,  if  they 
do,  are  relegated  in  most  cases  to  cab  work,  as 
worthless  animals  for  any  other  purpose. 

It  is  a  question  of  much  curiosity  why,  with  all 
the  care  that  appears  to  be  taken,  and  the  very  large 
fees  that  all  round  are  paid  by  breeders  for  stud  ser- 
vices, there  should  be  comparatively  so  few"  of  the 
good  and  so  very  many  of  the  other  kind.  That 
there  should  be  room  for  saying  this,  on  facts  that 
are  indisputable,  casts  a  somewhat  serious  reflec- 
tion on  our  breeding  system,  but  that  the  system  is 
accountable  for  it  there  cannot  be  much  doubt.  We 
have  long  drifted  into  the  meshes  of  fashion,  and 
we  all  know  "fashion"  governs  the  acts  of  breeders 
with  a  rod  of  iron. 

Perhaps  breeders  who  can  afford  to  indulge  their 
own  taste,  and  who  race  their  own  stock,  are  some- 
what differently  placed.  For  all  that,  even  with 
them,  unconsciously  to  themselves  it  may  be,  to  a 
large  extent  they  are  the  slaves  of  their  own  imag- 
ination, that  "fashion"  should  alone  dictate  their 
stud  policy. 


8  FLAT-RAVING    EXPLAINED. 

Why  do  breeders  iu  commou  follow  each  other  in 
the  use  of  some  particular  sire  like  so  many  sheep?  | 

If  it  is  because  the  progeny  of  this  sire  fetches"  high  'i 

prices  when  the  progeny  of  less  celebrated  sires  do 
not,  breeders  are  not  so  much  to  blame,  for  the  evil 
rests  more  with  the  buyers  than  with  them.  But, 
then,  does  it  not  come  to  this:  Breeders  do  not 
trouble  to  breed  race-horses  per  ae:  they  only  trouble 
to  breed  such  that  people  having  "more  money  than 
brains"  will  be  induced,  when  the  sales  are  on,  to 
compete  against  each  other  to  invest  in. 

Although  there  may  not  be  pretence  for  this,  yet 
the  fact  remains  that  breeders  who  breed  for  sale 
too  often  send  up  their  thoroughbred  stock  to  the 
sale-ring  beefy,  so  overladen  with  fat,  presumably 
that  their  defects  shall  not  be  seen,  and  their  good 
or  essential  qualities  only  a  dream  of  the  imagina- 
tion. However,  we  know  this,  that,  by  the  aid  and 
glitter  of  sire  qualification  and  attraction,  a  vast 
amount  of  blood  stock  rubbish  Is  foisted  upon  buy- 
ers, who,  in  return  for  the  fabulous  sums  they  pay, 
reap,  as  it  so  frequently  happens,  only  a  barren  re- 
ward for  their  seemingly  injudicious  enterprise. 


CHAPTEU  II. 

BREEDING  (continued.) 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  finest  specimen  of 
the  thoroughbred  and  the  highest  class  race- horse 
should  invariably  be  found  to  exist  in  the  same 
animal,  and  equally  remarkable,  too,  that  these 
should  invariably  be  bred  by  private  breeders  rather 
than  by  those  who  breed  for  sale.  Of  course  there 
are  exceptions,  but  I  feel  I  am  not  too  wide  of  the 
mark  in  saying  this.  For  instance,  take  the  case  of 
Galtee  More,  Persimmon*  (a  grand  horse  on  the 
level),  St.  Frusquin  (an  equally  good  horse  on  stiff 
gradients),  Ladas,  Isinglass,  Ravensbury,  Orme,  La 
Fleche,  Ormonde,  all  of  recent  years,  and  others  that 
could  be  largely  added  to  in  point  of  number,  well 
known  to  everybody  as  animals  of  superb  physique. 

Why  private  breeders  should  favor  us,  as  they 
consistently^  do,  with  the  finest  specimens  of  th^ 


10  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

thoroughbred  is  that  conformation  and  general  rac- 
ing style  is  a  ruling  passion  with  them,  much  more 
so  than  with  those  who  are  goverened  by  financial 
considerations  in  the  choice  of  a  sire.  To  make  up 
deficiencies  in  the  dam  by  the  selection  of  a  suitable 
sire  has  led,  in  the  furtherance  of  this  particular 
aim,  to  most  satisfactory  results,  and  has  done  more 
to  make  the  thoroughbred  what  it  is  to-day  than  the 
adoption  of  any  other  breeding  system.  I  do  not 
suggest  that  private  breeders  do  not  give  effect  to 
the  proverbial  idea  of  uniting  the  best  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  most  suitable  strains.  To  a  very 
marked  degree  tlie  perpetuation  of  a  direct  line  has, 
as  events  have  shown,  rightly  been  made  to  give 
place  to  Nature's  requirements  in  the  matter  of  sus- 
taining the  by  no  means  less  important  idea  of 
physique. 

Now,  what  is  "physique"  in  a  race  horse?  The 
muscular  proportions  are  undoubtedly  "physique" 
in  every  sense,  but  the  most  brilliant  specimen  of 
the  thoroughbred  must  go  further  than  what  is  con- 
veyed by  the  w^ords  "muscular  development." 
"Where  there  is  bone  there  is  muscle"  is  an  old  idea, 
but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  we  must  have  the  bone 
in  a  structural  sense  in  the  right  places.  For  in- 
stance, how  many  of  the  best  judges  are  not  satis- 
fied with  size  and  substance,  freedom  from  lumber,  a 


BREEDING.  11 

bright  intelligent  head,  good  shoulders  and  forehand, 
with  a  depth  of  girth,  an  evenly,  balanced  frame, — 
and  .a  well-shaped  and  sound  set  of  legs  and  feet? 
These  characteristics,  as  a  rule,  are  the  beau-ideal 
of  a  youngster,  esijecially  when  in  type  he  is  repre- 
sentative of  the  strain  of  blood  to  which  he  is  ac- 
credited. Does  this  go  far  enough?  In  my  experi- 
ence it  does  not,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there 
are  wanting  the  two  chief  elements  in  point  of 
structure  that  constitute  a  perfect  specimen,  in  the 
sense  of  what  is  required  in  a  race-horse.  These 
are  strength  and  general  development  of  the  spinal 
structure.  In  the  second  place  depth  of  hock,  with 
the  hind-quarters  somewhat  obliquely,  rather  than 
perpendicularly,  set  on,  permitting  the  greatest  pos- 
sible under-reach  and  hind-quarter  propulsion  from 
behind.  To  avoid  repetition  as  to  the  necessity  and 
value  of  this,  I  refer  my  readers  to  the  chapter  on 
jockeys  (pp.  49-52).  However,  I  take  the  opportu- 
nity of  saying  there  has  been  no  horse  having  gained 
celebrity  on  the  turf,  since  racing  became  an  estab- 
lished institution  in  this  country  down  to  the  pres- 
ent, that  did  not  owe  its  success  to  the  possession  of 
abnormal  powers  in  these  two  mentioned  particu- 
lars. 

The  "spinal  structure,"  which  is  the  mainspring 
in  the  mechanism  of  the  race-horse,  is  by  no  means 


12  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

the  most  studied  part  of  a  horse's  frame,  I  regret  to 
say,  by  either  breeders  or  buyers.  If  a  colt  has  bone 
below  the  kuee,  and  a  seemingly  powerful  frame, 
people  are  generally  satisfied;  but  they  forget  that 
very  often  there  is  a  lack  of  power  in  the  back  and 
loins  to  wield  the  strength  and  weight  below,  which 
in  such  cases  is  only  so  much  lumber.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  so  many  horses,  looking  to  have  great 
power,  tire  so  quickly,  and  never  turn  out  good  race- 
horses. What  these  horses,  I  may  add,  endure 
when  efforts  are  made  to  develop  their  supposed 
racing  capabilities  can  only  be  imagined  when  it  is 
remembered  they  are  never  allowed  to  have  re- 
course to  Nature's  restorer,  which  would  relieve 
them  at  once,  namely,  to  roll  on  their  backs  in  the 
same  manner  that  grazing  colts  always  do  after  a 
bout  of  galloping,  when  something  or  other  had  set 
them  to  do  so. 

As  I  have  mentioned  in  the  pages  devoted  to 
jockeys,  in  galloping,  the  back  of  a  horse  curves  to 
an  extent  to  almost  describe  a  half-circle,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  natural  desire  a  horse  has 
to  roll  after  a  severe  gallop  is  prompted  by  natural 
laws,  and  it  is  only  our  ignorance  and  want  of 
anatomical  insight  that  have  failed  us  in  providing 
for  it. 

Why  natural  laws  should  be  put  aside  in  any  om 


BREEDING.  13 

respect  with  horses  in  training  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand. It  may  be  sought  to  be  justified  by  circum- 
stances the  trainer's  art  may  have  deftly  concealed 
from  us,  but,  notwithstanding,  it  is  a  hundred  to  one 
the  circumstances  are  wrong.  I  know  this,  how- 
ever, that  in  principle  the  structural  condition  re- 
quires the  back  of  a  horse  should  be  straightened 
out  and  the  extreme  tension  relieved,  to  enable  him 
to  be  free  from  pain  after  long-continued  galloping, 
and  more  especially  if  the  siDeed  has  been  excessive 
— as  a  liorse  experiences  in  training  equally  as  in 
racing. 

In  thus  writing,  I  cannot  but  think  what  a  hu- 
mane act  this  work  will  have  achieved  in  the  cause 
of  the  noble  animal  we  love  so  well,  and  how'  in- 
tensely gratifying  it  will  be,  at  least  to  me,  if  I  shall 
have  induced  some,  if  not  all  amongst  the  more 
honored  of  our  turf  patrons,  to  give  attention  to  this 
subject,  on  the  lines  I  have  pointed  out.  If  I  have 
appealed  to  their  conviction,  I  hope,  too,  I  may  not 
have  appealed  in  vain  to  the  necessity  that  their 
horses  on  coming  in  from  fast  work,  as  soon  as<  the 
saddle  and  sheets  are  removed,  shall  be  permitted, 
say  in  an  inclosed  shed  or  other  suitable  place  ar- 
ranged for  the  purpose,  to  throw  themselves  down 
and  turn  over  a  time  or  two.  The  effect  this  will 
be  found  to  have  upon  horses  in  training,  and  upon 


14  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

hunt-horses,  too,  is  astonishing,  for  it  at  once  im- 
parts freshness  and  vigor,  when  otherwise  they 
would  remain  for  hours  tired  and  listless. 

How  many  horses  after  being  hard  galloped,  al- 
though allowed  to  get  apparently  composed,  refuse 
to  feed,  and  now  and  again  may  be  seen  looking 
somewhat  anxiously  around!  When  this  happens, 
horses  are  not  wholly  free  from  pain,  the  remedy 
for  it  being  what  I  have  said.  Upon  this  I  must 
leave  my  readers  to  judge  for  themselves  how  a 
horse  comes  out  of  the  ordeal  of  excessive  training, 
if  the  idea  is  to  improve  as  well  as  to  secure  the 
retention  of  speed. 

It  will  certainly  not  be  by  prolonging  the  tension 
and  strain  upon  the  spinal  structure,  but  rather  by 
giving  relief  to  that  organ  of  the  equine  frame,  for 
expansion  and  development,  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible. 

In  the  matter  of  providing  a  suitable  place  in 
which  horses  may  be  attracted  to  roll,  much  care  is 
necessary.  If  possible  it  should  be  round  or  oblong, 
rather  than  square,  in  shape.  There  should  be 
plenty  of  straw  or  sand  placed  round  the  outer  edge, 
so  that  a  horse  may  not  get  cast  or  injured  in  any 
way. 

When  a  horse  has  seen  another  throw  himself 
down  and  roll,  when  his  turn  comes  he  takes  to  it 


BREEDING.  15 

just  as  a  (luck  takes  to  water,  and  in  a  short  time  it 
apparently  becomes  tbe  chief  phnisure  to  look  for- 
ward to,  in  the  course  of  his  daily,  though  otherwise 
monotonous,  life.  There  should  be  no  training  es- 
tablishment without  this  provision  attached  to  it, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  hunting  establishment 
either. 

In  the  purchase  of  thoroughbred  stock  for  rac- 
ing purposes,  buyers  should  be  forewarned  not  to 
make  selection  of  any  lacking  "spinal"  development. 
It  is  not  sufficient  that  appearances  indicate  a  good 
back  and  loins.  Care  should  be  taken  to  see,  as 
with  many  horses,  that  the  spinal  strength  does  not 
end  at  the  root  of  the  tail,  followed  on  by  a  weak 
and  only  partially  developed  dock.  To  be  perfect  in 
back  or  spinal  structure,  the  bone  should  not  only  be 
massive  and  in  due  proportion  with  the  rest  of  the 
frame,  but  the  strength  and  power  it  imparts  should 
be  found  to  be  carried  throughout  the  dock  itself. 
A  powerful  and  well  developed  dock  is  a  tolerably 
sure  sign  that  a  horse  has  a  strong  and  well-devel- 
oped back.  I  have  known,  however,  a  horse  to  l^e 
extremely  strong  in  its  dock,  and  not  overdeveloped 
in  point  of  strength  in  the  back,  but  in  my  experi- 
ence such  cases-  are  rare. 


ClIAI'TKK   III. 

HORSES. 

I  f  tbe  interest  which  people  take  in  the  thorough- 
bred is  great  in  the  matter  of  character  and  pedi- 
gree, it  is  yet  enhanced  by  their  doings  on  a  race 
course.  In  this  respect  everj^  particular  is  eagerly 
scrutinized  and  dilated  upon,  from  the  time  he 
leaves  the  breeders'  hands  to  take  his  place  in  the 
string  under  the  trainer's  charge,  in  his  daily  work 
on  the  gallops,  till  he  shall  have  completed  his  rec- 
ord, for  good  or  for  evil,  and  quitted  the  post  for  the 
paddock.  One  can  only  realize  this  by  supposing 
a  work  to  be  published  containing  every  detail  that 
finds  its  way  into  print  during  the  career  of  a  single 
horse  that  has  found  favor  with  the  public,  and  one 
may  picture  books  as  big  as  the  "London  Directory" 
to  grace  one's  library  shelves,  and  perhaps  a  place  as 
big  as  Olympia  to  store  them  in,  in  the  few  yearS 
one  may  number  by  the  fingers  on  one's  hands. 


HORSES  17 

I  cannot  say  that  any  one  has  need  to  complain  of 
this  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  British  public, 
but  rather  to  feel  the  greatest  satisfaction  that  so 
healthful  a  diversion  should  exist,  to  stimulate  the 
better  side  of  people's  natures.  Wherever  men  are 
wont  to  congregate,  there  are  sure  to  be  some 
amongst  them  imbued  with  a  natural  insfmct  for 
sport,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  congenial 
topic  of  horses  and  horse  lore  finds  vent  to  engross 
attention. 

The  subject  of  horses  is  very  naturally  provoca- 
tive of  contention,  and  equally  so  when  it  has  ref- 
erence to  the  qualities  and  merits  of  the  thorough- 
bred. 

On  the  subject  of  pedigree  it  is.  marvellous  the 
wealth  of  information  some  men  possess,  and  the 
facility  with  which  they  dive  into  the  labyrinths 
of  descent  and  the  many  knotty  points  that  are 
present  touching  the  perpetuation  of  strain. 

To  be  well  versed  in  pedigree  was  regarded  a 
generation  or  so  ago  as  one  of  the  highest  accom- 
plishments a  man  recognized  as  a  sportsman  could 
possess.  The  same  sentiment,  indeed,  prevails  even 
now  amongst  many  who  delight  to  adhere  to  the 
precepts  of  the  old  school,  and  therefore  it  will  be 
a  period  of  humiliation  for  those  who  come  after 
should  they  allow  the  siMrit  that  guides  it  to  decay 
and  die  out. 


18  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

What  was  thought  to  be  practical  then  is  perhaps 
more  of  theory  now;  but,  as  far  as  can  be  seen,  no 
signal  benefit  has  come  by  the  change.  In  the  re- 
searches of  pedigree,  as  in  the  elucidation  of  the 
mysteries  of  racing,  the  ambition  of  all  is,  of  course, 
to  be  practical,  as  well  as  far-seeing.  That  this 
ambition,  however,  has  been  realized  by  many  may 
be  open  to  doubt- — and  I  think  very  much  doubt — 
when  judged  by  one's  common  understanding. 

I  may  have  taken  an  erroneous  view— I  hope  I 
have — of  the  opinions  generally  entertained  by 
racing  men  on  racing  subjects,  but  I  have  never 
regarded  them,  I  am  bound  to  observe,  as  par- 
taking of  a  very  high  standard.  I  happen  to  be 
acquainted  with  a  good  many  owners,  and  amongst 
the  trainers  I  think  only  a  few  would  be  able  to 
say  I  was  not  personally  known  to  them.  Then,  of 
the  general  followers  of  the  noble  pastime  I  have 
rather  an  extended  acquaintance,  so  I  have  the 
means,  at  any  rate,  of  forming  a  fairly  accurate 
notion  of  what  racing  opinion  is  among  racing  men. 

It  is  always  futile  to  make  sweeping  allegations, 
and  extremely  wrong,  I  should  say,  at  any  time,  if 
not  well  founded.  But  racing  men,  in  my  experi- 
ence, are  much  given  to  taking  a  superficial  view 
of  events  and  circumstances,  only  to  be  construed 
in  the  light  of  what  has  grown  to  be  a  sort  of  ac- 


HORSES  19 

cepted  doctrine  amongst  themselves.  This  arises 
more  especially  in  regard  to  horses  running,  though 
it  permeates  almost  everything  that  transpires  in 
racing.  Take,  for  instance,  a  race  which  a  horse 
has  won  by  a  head.  The  idea  with  them  prevails 
that  2  lb.  would  have  brought  the  winner  and  the 
second  horse  together,  and  that,  should  these  same 
two  animals  again  meet,  giving  the  second  horse 
that  advantage,  his  chance  would  be  equal  to  the 
other. 

There  surely  can  be  nothing  more  haphazard 
than  this,  and  nothing  more  fatal  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  racing.  This  question  of  the  2  lb.  weight, 
although  upheld  by  handicap  rules,  and  thereby 
accepted  with  authoritative  sanction,  is  ridiculous 
on  the  face  of  it.  Suppose  these  two  horses  do 
meet  on  the  same  ground,  and  on  the  altered  con- 
ditions, and  we  are  treated  to  the  show  of  a  race 
at  the  finish,  and,  watch  in  hand,  you  have  ex- 
amined both  races  with  the  practised  eye  of  a 
critic.  You  will  have  found  that  the  difference  in 
running,  in  ix)iut  of  time,  amounted  probably  to 
several  seconds — sufficient,  indeed,  to  have  sepa- 
rated the  horses,  on  their  merits,  by  some  three  or 
four  lengths. 

Instead  of  having  witnessed  two  genuine  races, 
you  will  probably  have  seen  two  falsely-run  races, 


20  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

neither  of  which  was  of  the  least  possible  value 
so  far  as  the  merits  of  the  horses  were  concerned. 
In  all  probability  all  the  horses  running  were,  to 
adopt  the  method  so  popular  with  some  people, 
"waiting  to  make  one  run  or  dash,"  with  the  result 
that  the  race  was  run  at  no  sort  of  speed,  the  whole 
lot  being  "all  out"  at  the  finish. 

But  suppose  the  second  race  to  have  taken  place 
on  another  course,  the  course  itself  being  up  hill  or 
down  hill,  or  as  dry  and  hard  as  a  road,  or  in  mud 
nearly  up  to  the  horses'  fetlocks,  the  2  lb.  difference 
would  remain  the  same.  The  relative  chances  of 
horses  under  saich  conditions — being  a  perfect  im- 
possibility to  forecast — would  be  governed  by  the  2 
lb.  difference,  and  in  the  future  treated  accordingly. 

There  was  this  in  the  running  of  Haw/inch  and 
Succoth  last  autumn,  and  these  horses  are  handi- 
capped and  supported  for  future  engagements  on 
the  hypothesis  that  a  change  of  course,  and  possibly 
altered  climatic  conditions,  will  in  no  way  make 
any  alteration.  "Where  the  one  is,  the  other  is 
bound  to  be,"  wrote  an  inspired  writer  not  long 
since,  which  was  intended  to  be  sagacious,  no 
doubt. 

Of  course,  it  will  be  understood  I  refer  to  the 
head-beating  and  the  2  lb.  as  a  matter  of  common 
acceptance  in  the  rules,  as  well  as  in  the  practice 


HORSES  21 

of  racing.  AYhat  I  have  said  in  this  respect  must 
be  taken  to  apply  in  all  cases  where  readjustment 
of  weights  is  supposed  to  bring  horses  together. 
Of  the  principle  of  handicapping,  the  late  Admiral 
Rous  used  to  say  that  "weight  could  be  so  adjusted 
in  racing  as  to  bring  a  horse  and  a  donkey  together." 
I  do  not  know  if  the  great  turf  mentor  really  in- 
tended this  to  be  taken  seriously,  or  whether  it 
was  one  of  those  ponderous  flights  of  fancy  the 
gallant  old  salt  so  delighted  to  indulge  in. 

In  any  case,  it  could  have  no  practical  mean- 
ing beyond  the  suggestion  that  in  racing  "weight 
governs  all  things."  Taken  at  this,  my  admiration 
for  one  who  did  so  much  to  popularize  the  great 
institution  of  racing  is  in  no  sense  diminished  by 
the  belief  I  enttrtain,  that  in  this  idea  of  his  he 
was  mistaken,  it  being  an  incontestable  fact  that 
horses  almost  in  all  cases  run  their  fastest  races 
when  carrying  the  biggest  burden.  That  a  man  of 
his  experience  and  high  intelligence  should  have 
been  as-«ociated  with  the  turf  so  very  many  years, 
and — so  far  as  one  can  judge — not  found  this  out, 
surpasses  one's  comprehension;  yet  it  occurred  con- 
stantly during  his  time,  as  it  is  happening  now 
during  ours. 

All  horses  running  in  races  have  a  reputation 
for  distances.    Thus,  we  have  five-furlong  and  six- 


22  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

furlong  horses;  we  have  then  milers,  and  those  des- 
ignated "long-distance  horses,"  which  may  mean 
any  distance  up  to  two  or  two  and  a  half  miles.  We 
have  three  miles,  it  is  true,  but  those  races  are  few 
and  far  between  now. 

Of  the  running  of  horses  over  short  distances 
a  singular  erroneous  idea  appears  to  prevail.  If 
a  "six-furlong  horse"  wins,  say,  at  Epsom,  he  is 
treated  as  being  the  same  horse  at  that  distance 
on  all  courses,  and  it  is  not  of  any  consequence 
whether  it  be  Ascot,  Goodwood,  Sandowne,  or  any 
other  place.  Why  this  should  be  so  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  How  many  horses  there  are  that  win  at 
Epsom  on  the  short  courses,  and  seldom,  if  ever, 
win  anywhere  else!  It  is  true  I  once  saw  a  couple 
of  two-year-olds  run  a  close  race  at  Epsom,  and 
they  were  afterwards  matched  for  a  large  stake  to 
run  five  furlongs  on  tlie  same  conditions  in  point  of 
weight  at  Ascot,  and  they  finished  a  close  race  there. 
It  was,  however,  only  a  sorry  exhibition  at  the 
latter  place,  and  it  practically  settled  both,  for 
neither  was  of  any  use  afterwards. 

But  upon  what  theory  these  colts  were  matched 
to  run  on  a  total  change  of  gradients  it  is  diflacult 
to  understand.  If  the  question  of  gradient  alone 
inspired  the  match,  there  would  have  been  some- 
thing in  it,  and  at  the  same  time  something  to 
record,  on  the  scientific  as  also  on  the  practical  side 


HORSES  23 

of  racing.  While  these  colts  were  adapted  to  the 
Epsom  gradients,  and  might  have  become  good 
animals  had  they  been  reserved  for  racing  only  on 
such  gradients,  they  were  useless  for  incline  gallop- 
ing, and  it  was  the  worst  possible  judgment  to  put 
them  to  do  it. 

But,  then,  how  often  do  we  not  see  horses  put 
to  race  on  courses  where,  in  point  of  gradient,  they 
have  no  chance  whatever!  To  write  affirmatively 
that  the  principle  of  racing  is  entirely  governed 
by  gradient,  and  that  the  apportioning  of  weights 
(presuma)bly  to  bring  the  running  capabilities  of 
horses  to  a  common  level)  has  no  practical  result 
to  that  end,  I  suppose  will  be  derided  as  imaginary, 
and  possibly  unsound. 

If  there  are  those  who  take  that  view,  let  them 
explain  why  it  is  that  horse'^  run  in  races  under 
favorable  conditions  time  after  time,  backed  by 
the  stable,  and  j'et  make  no  show,  and  when  cA^ery- 
body  is  disgusted,  and  not  :i  shilliiv:]?  is^n.  tlioy 
come  out  and  win  witliout  an  effort.  Why  did  Per- 
simmon beat  St.  Ffus<.^uin  at  Epsom,  and  then  get 
beaten  by  St.  Frusquin  at  Newmarket?  Why  did 
Georgic  run  perhaps  the  fastest  Cambridgeshire  we 
may  see  for  years,  and  then,  at  a  slight  difference 
in  weight  two  days  lat^r,  get  beaten  by  ten  lengths, 
in  a  slower-run  race,  in  the  Old  Cambridgeshire? 
Why  did  Jeddah  win  the  Derb}-  last  year  compara- 


24  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

Tively  so  easily,  au<.l  then  get  beaten  anyhow  iu 
the  St.  Leger  by  nil  auimal  supposed  to  have  but 
an  indifferent  chance? 

Take  these  as  instances  only  of  performances 
that  occur  with  horses  almost  dally  throughout  the 
season,  and  what  is  the  an?v,^or  to  it? 

Can  it  be  alleged  that  it  was  caused  by  the 
changed  conditions  in  point  of  weight?  The 
weights  were  practically  the  same,  so  it  cannot  l>e 
that.  Can  it  be  that  the  old  story — that  certain 
horses  have  *conie  on  a  bit,*  or  'gone  back  a  bit.' 
or  have  'joined  the  ranks  of  the  currish  lot,  and 
won't  do  their  best,'  and  endless  phrases  of  the 
kind  which  ara  always  made  to  account  for  defeat 
— is  true,  or  does  it  arise  from  causes  for  which 
no  excuses  need  be  vouchsafed  ? 

The  latter  Is  the  point;  no  excuses  are  needed. 
Any  one  who  applies  his  mind  to  a  study  of  these 
eccentricities  in  the  running  of  horses  should  ex- 

V 

perience  little  diificulty  in  finding  it  out.  So  far, 
however,  I  have  never  heard  that  auj'  one  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  do  so. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HORSES  {continued.)] 

In  handicaps  tbe  woi^lits  are  always  made  the 
seapegoait  for  every  conceivable  discrepancy,  simply 
because  there  is  little  else  to  fall  back  upon.  Noth- 
ing can  be  more  Illogical,  because  it  is  not  in  handi- 
caps alone  that  a  solution  is  to  be  found.  You  have 
only  to  take  the  weight-for-age  races  and  turn  thoni 
into  handicaps,  on  the  basis  of  handicap  rales,  be- 
fore they  are  rim,  and  tlicn  see  for  yourself  how 
they  come  out  after  the  races  are  over.  If  this  does 
not  convince  yoa  of  the  fallacy  of  the  principle  upon 
which  handicaps  are  framed  you  will  be  incapable 
of  conviction  in  matters  of  racing,  however  sound 
an  argument  may  h'.\ 

Take  the  tunning  in  the  Derby  .and  the  St. 
Leger  last  year,  and  apply  the  test  to  those  races. 
Jeddah  won  the  Derby  with  something  in  hand 
by  three-qnartcrs  of  a  length,  and  the  performance 


26  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

was  thought  to  be  good  enough  to  cause  him  to 
start  for  the  St.  Leger  with  the  call  In  the  market 
at  6  to  5  on. 

If  the  race  for  the  St.  Leger  had  been  a  handi- 
cap, Jeddali  obviously  would  have  been  top  weight, 
and  at  the  very  least  would  have  been  set  to  give 
Wildflower  7  lbs.  As  it  was,  the  latter  colt  met 
Jeddah  on  even  terms,  both  carrying  9  St.,  and  yet 
Wildfowler  beat  Jeddah  by  four  lengths.  If  the 
principle  of  handicapping  is  worth  anything  it 
would  show  conclusively  that  it  would  make  this 
kind  of  running  impo:^s:blo,  but  this  we  know  can- 
not be  done,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  never  is  done, 
in  any  handicap  ever  framed. 

The  real  explanation  in  the  case  of  Jeddah  is  that 
which  applies  with  equal  force  to  the  running  of 
Persimmon,  St.  Frusquin,  Georgic,  and  every  other 
horse  seen  on  a  race  course— that  is,  special  adapta- 
tion and  peculiarity  in  respect  of  gradient.  When 
horses  win  in  fast-run  races  they  are  obviously 
on  a  right  gradient;  when  their  speed  is  slow,  and 
they  are  seen  to  labor  in  their  stride,  they  are  on  a 
wrong  gradient. 

About  the  peculiarity  of  horses  in  this  respect, 
a  great  deal  might  be  written.  There  are  some 
alone  adapted  to  race  on  courses  perfectly  level, 
and  they  are  of  no  practical  good   when   put   to 


HORSES  27 

run  on  ground  that  differs  in  this  essential.  Some 
horses  are  of  litiie  u.^e  on  a  strictly  level  course, 
and  are  only  seen  to  advantage  when  the  winning- 
post  stands,  or  is  placed  at  a  spot,  very  much  below 
the  level  of  the  starting  post.  Then,  again,  others 
are  of  little  account  on  either  of  the  courses  just 
mentioned,  but  have  sterling  qualities  when  put  to 
race  where  there  is  a  steep  incline,  and  this  right 
up  to  the  finish. 

Next  to  be  considered  are  a  class  that,  whatever 
their  peculiarity  might  be  in  point  of  gradient, 
never  show  anything  approaching  their  best  form, 
or,  in  other  words,  "high  class  speed,"  unless  in  a 
sense  the  ground  is  as  hard  as  a  brickbat.  These 
horses,  in  a  wet  season,  are  generally  of  little  good 
for  racing,  and  it  is  quite  by  chance  they  can  be 
made  to  pay  their  training  expenses. 

But  perhaps  the  most  rcriuirkiible,  those  possess- 
ing the  greatest  peculiarity,  are  horses  capable  of 
racing  in  the  deepest  ground,  and  with  mud  almost 
up  to  their  fetlocks  skim  along  apparently  without 
an  effort,  looking  to  be  going  on  the  surface  as  light 
as  a  feather.  These  horses,  however,  Invariably 
are  useless  when  the  ground  is  hardt  being  too  slow, 
unless  placed  in  very  moderate  company. 

In  every  training  establishment,  there  is  neces- 
sarily a  rare  mixture  of  horses  haviug  peculiarities 


28  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

of  the  character  to  which  I  1  ave  referred.  What 
is  done  to  single  them  out  and  phice  them  on  suit- 
able courses,  under  suitable  condition?;,  is  best  un- 
derstood by  what  is  to  be  seen  of  their  perform- 
ances. 

As  everybody  who  j^oes  racing  knows,  there  are 
horses  continually  running  tluU  go  for  months  with- 
out winning  a  single  race.  When  this  happens, 
there  is,  of  course,  no  commiseration  or  kindly  word 
expressed  in  respect  of  the  horse,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  wretched  animal  is  made  tlie  object  of 
every  kind  of  abuse  for  liis  supposed  cowardice  and 
ungovernable  temper.  Under  these  circumstances, 
unfavorable  as  they  apparently  are  to  any  chance 
of  reclamation,  it  will  be  determined  to  get  rid  of 
him,  and  the  iiorse  will  pass  into  other  hands. 

A  new  order  of  tbings  now  springs  up,  and,  in 
spite  of  what  the  horse  h.'is  gone  through,  he  will 
begin  to  win  races,  and  in  a  sliort  time  put  several 
to  his  credit.  Now  the  secret  is  out.  The  horse  at 
length  got  into  the  possession  of  some  one  who  had 
the  good  sense  to  discover  th?  character  of  ground 
upon  which  he  could  stretch  himself,  and  hence  the 
result. 

It  is  clear  enough  there  would  not  be  half  the 
number  of  bad  horses,  or  supposed  bad  hor.-es,  there 
are   if  they  were  properly  understood,  in  the  sense 


HORSES  29 

of  gratifying  the  particul-ir  desire  they  may  have 
for  work  to  their  liking.  It  is  sheer  nonsense,  with 
the  intelligence  horses  possess,  to  pretend  to  ignore 
that  they  are  not  endowed  with  sufficient  reason 
to  be  able  to  discriminate  the  character  of  ground 
upon  which  they  can  do  their  best,  or  whicli  goes 
best  w  ith  them. 

You  have  only  to  observe  what  I  shall  choose 
to  call  the  'mannerisms'  of  horses  in  their  work, 
and  now  and  again  you  will  see  some  particular 
animal  object  to  go  here  or  there,  but  elsewhere 
he  will  be  quite  contented,  and  will  jump  oft'  and 
put  heart  into  his  work,  going  throughout  with 
evident  relish.  Taking  things  as  you  liud  Ihem, 
this  is  always  put  dov/n  to  tejnper,  and  a  horse 
won't  be  long  before  he  gets  the  credit  of  being 
a  wayward  brute,  and  will  be  treated  as  such. 

It  is,  however,  any  odds  on  a  horse  of  this  char- 
acter being  in  the  right,  and  if  his  course  of  train- 
ing, in  point  of  the  selction  of  the  ground,  were  so 
followed,  it  would  be  far  better  lor  the  Jiorse,  j.nd 
doubly  so  for  his  owner.  I  am  quite  aware  there 
will  be  a  good  many,  having  charge  of  horses,  who 
will  not  be  disix)sed  to  agree  with  this  maimer  of 
treatment,  but  for  all  that,  I  recommend  them,  for 
once  in  a  way,  to  put  aside  their  prejudices  and 
try  it. 


30  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

"Horses  for  courses  and  courses  for  horses"  is 
so  old  as  to  be  quite  proverbial.  Its  application 
is  general,  to  courses  of  all  kinds,  when  horses 
repeat  their  performances  upon  thera;  but  it  Ijas 
special  significance  when  applied  to  horses,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  it  recognizes  their  adaptability 
to  some  particular  ground.  That  these  facts  should 
not  have  become  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  rac- 
ing people  has  always  struck  me  as  being  strange. 
If  horses  were  singular  in  this  peculiarity,  and  their 
performances  partook  of  isolated  cases,  much  need 
not  be  said,  but  we  all  know  there  is  a  constant 
recurrence  at  almost  .every  meeting  that  is  held. 

I  have  thought  it  strange  for  two  reasons.  In 
the  first  place,  it  affords  a  solution  to  a  horse's  run- 
ning capabilities,  on  a  scientific  basis,  that  should 
have  been  of  material  importance  to  horse  owners; 
while,  in  the  second  place,  it  points  so  directly  to  the 
peculiarities  in  the  natural  formation  of  courses  as 
to  afford  a  positive  clue  to  the  vagaries — called  in 
sporting  language  the  "glorious  uncertainty" — of 
racing  results,  ynder  all  kinds  of  conditions. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HORSES  {continued.) 

In  point  of  distance  there  is  great  dissimilarity  in 
the  running  powers  disphiyed  by  horses.  The  ma- 
jority of  those  in  training  are  undoubtedly  of  the 
"sprinter"  or  short-distance  class,  but  there  are  a 
large  number  variously  described  as  "middle-class" 
and  "long-distance"  runners.  Whether  a  horse  be- 
longs to  either  the  one  or  the  other  entirely  depends 
on  his  wind,  or  lung  capacity,  and  the  combined 
powers  possessed  in  the  back  and  loins.  With  most 
horses,  however,  as  we  see  them,  their  running  dis- 
tance is  an  acquired  or  cultivated  art,  more  than 
anything  else,  the  course  of  training  being  fashioned 
to  suit  the  character  of  race  those  concerned  in  a 
horse  may  prefer  to  indulge  in.  With  a  good  many 
it  is  not  a  question  of  whati  a  horse  may  be  fitted  for 
and  made  to  accomplish,  within  its,  so  to  speak, 
"capacity,"  but  something  else  is  designed — I  am 


32  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

afraid  only  too  frequently — for  which  a  horse  has  no 
special  merit  or  fitness.  For  this  kind  of  thing  in 
these  days  there  is  really  no  excuse.  It  may  have 
been  justified  in  the  old  days  on  the  grounds  of  ex- 
pediency, when  £50  plates  with  four-mile  heats  ex- 
isted; but  now,  thanks  to  the  new  rules,  there  are 
not  only  large  stakes  to  be  raced  for  in  plenty,  but  a 
choice  of  distance  is  made  to  accommodate  every 
class  of  horse. 

I  have  seen  many  horses  confined  to  five  furlong 
races  that  probably  should  have  been  raced  over 
longer  distances;  but  this,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  by  the 
well-timed  action  of  the  Jockey  Club,  will  be  altered 
in  the  future.  There  is  no  reason  why  horses,  pre- 
sumably stayers  only  at  five  furlongs,  should  not 
race  equally  well  over  longer  distances. 

In  judging  horses'  staying  powers,  it  should  always 
be  remembered,  those  that  apparently  do  not  get 
beyond  five  furlongs  are  not  limited  to  this  distance 
by  failure  of  muscular  power,  but  from  the  vacua- 
tion  of  air  from  the  lungs.  As  a  rule,  horses  that 
stop  at  five  or  six  furlongs  have  small  lung  capacity, 
and  frequently  the  only  chance  of  getting  them  to 
cover  the  distance  at  one  "burst"  is  at  high  speed 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

These  horses,  however,  can  be  made  to  cover 
longer  distances  without  difficulty  if,  instead  of  the 


HORSES  33 

foolish  practice  of  holding  them  back  and  "waiting," 
as  it  is  termed,  they  are  allowed  to  travel  through- 
out at  high  speed,  the  only  difference  made  being 
that,  at  a  given  point,  when  they  are  getting  toward 
the  end  of  a  "burst"  (say  a  half-furlong  sliort  of  the 
known  distance  they  can  stay),  they  are  pulled  sud- 
denly up,  as  though  to  stop.  This  momentary  ac- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  jockey  recharges  the  lungs, 
when  the  horse  will  continue  the  struggle  with  re- 
newed vigor,  and  will  be  found  to  go  on  and  com- 
plete another  "burst." 

In  this  way  "sprinters,"  or  sli'oi"t-distance  horses, 
can  be  raced  over  long  distances,  provided,  of  course, 
proper  care  is  used  and  the  method  of  "hanging 
back"  and  "waiting"  is  not  pursued.  When  a  horse 
is  suddenly"  pulled  up  to  reinflate  the  lungs,  as  I 
have  siaid,  it  should  be  when  he  is  well  up  in  tlie 
race;  and  if  done  with  skill,  it  will  not  only  be  un- 
perceived,  but  a  horse  need  not  lose  an  inch  of 
ground  in  the  process.  But  even  supposing  he  does 
lose  a  little  ground,  it  will  be  made  up  afterwai'd, 
not  merely  once,  but  many  times  over,  by  the  time 
the  winning-post  is  reached,  should  sufficient  room 
be  given  for  the  purpose. 

It  should  here  be  noted  it  was  thought  at  one  time 
to  convert  that  splendid  miler,  Victor  Wild,  into 
y^hat  is  called  a  "cup  horse,"  and  in  furtherance  of 


34  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

it  he  was  entered  idcI  ran  for  the  Ascot  Cup  of  two 
and  a  half  miles  in  1896  Tliere  was  certainly,  il 
must  be  said,  some  good  reaso)i  for  running  the 
horse  on  the  Ascot  gradients,  for  two  years  previous- 
ly, viz..  in  1894,  he  had  won  thi  Koyal  Hunt  Cup. 

It  was  clear,  however,  Victor  Wild  was  seen  to 
tlie  best  advantage  at  a  mile  and  on  a  perfectly  fial 
course;  and,  as  his  speed  was  extraordinary,  it  could 
not  be  expected  he  would  be  able  to  cover  two  and 
a  half  miles,  unless  pulled  up  to  reinflate  his  lungs 
at  the  end  of  each  mile,  or,  say,  seven  and  a  half 
furlongs.  Had  this  been  done  in  the  manner  I  have 
described,  there  is  little  doubt  AHctor  Wild  would 
have  done  the  last  five  furlongs  at  his  usual  rate  of 
speed,  and  without  showing  any  signs  of  being  over- 
done. 

Whilst  99  horses  out  of  every  100  must  needs  be 
placed  exactly  on  the  character  of  ground  adapted 
to  their  requirements,  there  is  even  an  exception  to 
this  supposed  rule.  This  refers  to  what  I  may  call 
"all-round"  horses;  those  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
misplace^ — in  the  sense  of  being  put  on  a  wrong 
course— under  almost  any  conditions.  You  may  put 
them,  indeed,  on  any  course,  regardless  of  its  cli- 
matic state,  the  weight  to  be  carried,  the  distance 
to  be  run,  or  the  class  of  the  company  to  be  met. 
Of  these,  I  have  only  seen  one  during  my  experir 


HORSES  35 

ence,  and  that  is  La  Fleche,  1889,  by  St.  Simon  out 
of  Quiver,  tlie  property,  during:  the  mare's  racing 
career,  of  that  generous  friend  of  the  English  peo- 
ple, and  withal  great  philanthropist,  the  late  Baron 
de  Hirsch. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  for  me,  in  the  present 
work,  to  recapitulate  the  splendid  achievements  of 
La  Fleche,  an  animal  whose  performances  on  the 
turf,  in  my  judgment,  stand  out  as  unsurpassed,  if, 
indeed,  equalled,  by  any  other  during  the  present 
century.  In  thus  writing,  I  have  not  overlooked 
that  La  Fleche  won  races  at  all  distances  and  at 
all  weights;  on  courses  of  all  gradients,  as  well  as 
on  the  level,  and  when  the  gi'ound  in  point  of  con- 
dition was  as  hard  as  a  road,  or,  deluged  with  rain, 
of  the  deepest  kind.  There  is  also  the  fact  that 
she  raced  four  whole  seasons,  finally  quitting  the 
post  for  the  paddock  as  sound  as  the  day  when  she 
was  foaled. 

As  a  showyard  specimen  of  the  thoroughbred,  it 
is  to  be  doubted  if  La  Fleche  would  have  been  "com- 
mended" by  judges.  Built  on  the  most  perfect 
lines  for  speed  and  endurance,  it  always  struck  me, 
when  looking  her  over  during  her  racing  career, 
that  her  model  was  as  near  perfection  as  one  may 
ever  hope  to  see  in  a  race-horse.  She  was  not  what 
is  called  a  "big  one,"  but  the  colossal  strength  of 
her  b^ck  was  most  remarkable,  while  the  getting  of 


36  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

the  hindquarters  at  aii  angle  for  speed,  to  be  cor- 
rectly described,  was  in  itself  almost  a  "freak  of 
nature." 

What  La  Fleche  displaj'ed  in  physical  conforma- 
tion, more  especially  in  construction  of  frame,  she 
exhibited  in  action,  when  fully  extended.  Her 
stride,  in  point  of  length,  was  a  thing  to  be  remem- 
bered for  the  rest  of  one's  life  as  quite  abnormal  in 
any  race-horse.  iDiff ering  from  other  horses  in  this 
respect,  it  was  unrestricted  by  gradient  or  by  the 
state  the  ground  hapi>ened  to  be  in.  A  new  stride 
followed  an  expended  one  with  such  rapidity  that 
I  can  alone  describe  it  to  have  been  like  a  "flash  of 
lightning." 

When  this  grand  mare  shall  have  ended  her  days, 
having  left,  as  we  hope,  some  specimens  of  progeny 
to  enrich  our  strains  of  the  thoroughbred,  as  well 
possibly  as  to  emulate  her  glorious  deeds  on  the 
turf,  it  is  also  to  be  hoped  that  her  respected  and 
popular  owner  may  then  be  induced,  in  the  cause 
of  equine  anatomical  science,  to  have  her  skeleton 
preserved.  And  not  only  preserved,  but,  above  all, 
anatomically  notated,  showing  both  the  weight  and 
the  measurement,  particularly  of  the  spinal  struc- 
ture, that  it  may  hereafter  afford  a  standard  guide 
(on  the  female  side)  in  point  of  frame  to  the  high- 
est excellence  in  the  thoroughbred  and  iu  a  racp^ 
liprse, 


CHAPTER  VI. 


OWNERS  AND  TRAINERS. 


The  responsibilities  associated  witli  the  duties  of 
a  trainer  of  race-horses  are  prodigious,  if  one  only 
takes  into  account  what  is  committed  to  his  charge 
in  the  matter  of  pounds,  shillings  and  pence.  In 
this,  of  course,  there  are  questions  of  degree,  for 
while  some  may  have  in  their  care  what  may 
amount  in  point  of  value  only  to  a  few  hundred 
pounds,  there  are  others,  and  many  of  them,  in  this 
country  who  may  total  a  sum  to  very  many  thou- 
sands, and  even  to  tens  of  thousands  of  pounds. 

Trainers'  responsibilities  by  no  means  end  with 
the  mere  physical  duties  of  training,  laborious  as 
they  are.  They  have  in  numerous  cases  the  entii-e 
management  of  an  owner's  racing  stud.  Probably 
there  will  be  several  patrons  identified  with  the 
stable,  all  of  whom  may  be  described  as  "large  own- 
ers," whose  interests  must  severally  be  an  object 


38  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

of  extreme  care,  and  very  evenly  balanced  in  mat- 
ters of  honorable  understanding,  while  affairs  gen- 
erally must  be  made  to  trend  in  the  direeiiiou  of 
reciprocal  and  trustworthy  obligation. 

Many  trainers  are  entrusted  with  the  delicate 
duties  of  making  the  entries,  involving  their  patrons 
in  large  sums  for  forfeits,  extending  from  year  to 
year,  and  in  some  cases  for  several  years.  They 
have  frequently  to  advise  their  patrons  in  matters 
of  policy,  more  especially  concerning  the  capabili- 
ties of  their  horses,  based  on  a  variety  of  circum- 
stances within  their  knowledge,  and  about  which 
their  patrons  could  not  otherwise  derive  necessary 
information.  They  have  also  to  keep  voluminous 
accounts,  provide  for  the  carrying  on  of  a  large 
correspondence  in  the  general  business  of  the  estab- 
lishment, as  well  as  arrange  the  somewhat  onerous 
and  frequently  perplexing  duties  associated  with 
stable  trials. 

I  do  not  say  that  these  things  exhaust  the  multi- 
farious duties  a  trainer  in  a  large  way  of  business 
has  to  combat  with,  but,  at  any  rate,  it  gives  some 
general  idea  of  what  his  daily  life  consists  when  at 
home  amongst  hisi  surroundings. 

Elsewhere  than  at  home  a  trainer's  duties  are  by 
no  means  light,  for  when  his  horses  are  running, 
sometimes  at  distant  places,  he  needs  to  be  there, 
not  onlj'  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  his  employer 


OWNERS  AND    TRAINERS.  39 

so  far  as  the  welfare  of  the  horses  is  concerned,  but 
there  are  endless  duties  both  before  racing  begins, 
during  its  progress,  and  when  it  has  ended,  all  of 
which,  in  detail.  I  do  not  venture,  in  the  capacity  of 
the  present  work,  to  enlarge  upon. 

But,  after  all,  perhaps  the  most  anxious  time  a 
trainer  has  is  in  the  daily  work  associated  with  the 
direction  and  management  of  a  large  stud,  what 
with  various  horses  all  differing  in  iDcculiarities  and 
characteristics  incidental  to  age,  degrees  of  sound- 
ness, and  maybe,  countless  infirmities.  All  claim 
his  attention  with  unvarying  regularity  from  early 
morning  till  stable  duties  are  brought  down  to  the 
time  when  the  horses  are  done  up  for  the  night,  and 
the  lads  and  all  concerned  are  thankful  to  retire  to 
rest. 

With  a  big  team,  it  is  a  serious  business  to  parcel 
out  the  worki  which  has  to  be  done  in  view  of  imme- 
diate or  distant  engagements.  Every  horse's  prepa- 
ration must  needs  be  applicable  to  the  requirements 
of  the  horse  itself.  Those  requirements  depend  on 
a  variety  of  circumstances,  all  destined  to  satisfy 
the  wishes  of  the  employer  and  the  policy  to  be  pur- 
sued. , 

About  these  affairs  there  is  in  some  instances 
much  secrecy  to  be  observed,  and  the  trainer  is  fre- 
quently the  depository  of  that  which  is  estimated,  on 
lines  suggestive  in  many  cases  of  preposterous  sig- 


40  FLAT-RAGINQ    EXPLAINED. 

nificance,  of  no  possible  value  to  the  owner  or  any- 
body else. 

Perhaps  I  may  remark  here  that  the  old  time- 
honored  practice  of  maintaining  inviolable  secrecy 
in  stable  affairs,  if  not  a  thing  of  the  past,  should 
have  been  so  long  ago. 

When  fifty-ix)und  plates  and  that  racing  abomi- 
nation, "four-mile  heats,"  were  the  order  of  the  day, 
there  was  a  sort  of  legitimate  excuse  for  it;  but 
feince  all  that  kind  of  thing  has  been  swept  away  by 
the  advent  of  big  stakes  and  more  healthy  condi- 
tions all  round,  surely  bygone  methods,  rendered 
obsolete  by  force  of  circumstances,  might  in  a  large 
measure  have  been  swept  away  too.  I  do  not  think, 
if  every  vestige  of  information  relating  to  stable 
affairs  were  absolutely  laid  bare,  it  would  be  of  the 
least  possible  disadvantage,  and  I  firmly  believe,  as 
a  consequence  of  it,  no  owner  of  racehorses  would 
suffer  in  the  slightest  degree.  Some  persons  are  apt 
to  think  market  operations  would  be  unduly  influ- 
enced if  the  course  suggested  were  resorted  to.  I 
have,  however,  not  the  least  doubt  just  the  opposite 
w^ould  occur,  and  that  a  far  healthier  tone  would 
prevail,  to  the  advantage  of  everybody,  owners  of 
horses  included. 

Whether  trainers  will  be  induced  to  adopt  the 
method  of  ascertaining  the  exact  distance  their 
horses  can  gallop  at  a  single  "burst"  or  stretch,  auck 


OWNERS  AND    TRAINERS.  41 

then  train  them  to-  that  particular  disanee,  remains 
to  be  seen.  How  many  horses  I  have  known  within 
the  space  of,  say,  some  half-dozen  years  that  could 
cover  distances,  varying  from  five  furlongs  to  a  mile 
and  a  quarter,  and  in  a  short  time  became  utterly 
ruined  through  being  raced  out  of  their  distance, 
and  on  gradients  upon  which  their  powers  were  al- 
most useless,  I  should  be  afraid  to  say,  but  they 
would  run  into  a  large  number. 

There  is  hardly  a  more  sensitive  animal  than  a 
race-horse,  and  few  with  half  his  intelligence.  At 
five  furlongs  you  might  have  a  colt  possessing  very 
great  speed  on  a  level  course.  Your  trainer,  and 
yourself  probably  too,  might  have  thought  that  he 
can  be  made  a  useful  miler.  Accordingly  he  is 
trained  for  it,  and  galloped  on  all  sorts  of  gra- 
dients— which  are  supposed  to  develop  his  muscles  in 
the  right  places,  strengthen  his  wind,  and  make  him 
stay.  Before  very  long  you  are  told  the  colt  is  not 
doing  well.  He  has  shown  currishness  in  his  work, 
and  at  times  refuses  to  gallop.  He  is  sent,  notwith- 
standing, to  take  his  chance  in  a  mile  race,  with  the 
result  that  he  gets  hopelessly  beaten.  If  he  is  not 
now  sold  for  what  he  will  fetch,  he  returns  home  to 
undergo  the  usual  corrective — viz.,  to  be  added  to 
the  list. 

In  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  every  hundred  of  this 
kind  the  fault  is  in  the  training  and  management  of 


42  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

tlie  colt,  it  being,  for  some  unaccountable  reason, 
<iuite  overlooked  that  you  cannot  give  a  horse  what 
he  does  not  possess  in  nature,  you  can  only  develop 
what  Nature  has  given  him. 

If  this  were  acted  up  to,  how  few  worthless  horses 
compared  to  the  present  would  pass  out  of  trainers' 
hands!  And  as  for  racing,  what  an  improvement  we 
should  see!  I  have  in  recollection  a  number  of 
horses  of  which  great  hopes  were  entertained,  but 
for  some  unexpected  cause  their  career  was  sud- 
dnly  cut  short. 

A  case  in  point  was  that  of  Ingebrigt,  a  horse 
still  in  training  as  a  jumper.  As  a  two  and  thvee 
year  old,  I  knew  him  as  one  of  the  fastest  animals  I 
ever  timed  over  five  furlongs  on  a  level  course.  He 
was  built  on  the  right  iiues  for  tliat  class  of  work, 
and  for  no  other.  He  won  his  races  so  easily  and 
with  so  much  go  that  he  was  pronounced  a  stayer 
and,  as  was  stated  at  the  time,  capable  of  better 
things,  and  to  that  end,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course, 
his  attention  was  directed.  Now  came  what  I  may 
call  a  "struggle  between  man  and  beast,"  for  the 
colt,  according  to  report,  resented  the  treatment,  and 
had  in  the  end  to  undergo  the  corrective  referred  to, 
preparatory  to  being  trained  for  hurdle-racing.  It  is 
needless  to  say  his  career  as  a  first-class  "sprinter" 
was  over,  and  what  promised  to  be  one  of  the  finest 
of  records  in  that  line  of  business  was  doomed  to 


OWNERS  AND   TRAINERS.  43 

litter  disappointment.  The  last  time  that  I  ever 
cared  to  look  at  the  horse  again  was  after  he  had 
been  put  to  hurdle-jumping,  and  was  sent  to  run  in 
a  race  up  the  hill  at  Sandown  Park.  And  what  a 
sorry  exliibition  it  was!  I  had  seen  him  go  with  the 
dash  of  a  rocket  over  ground  tliat  was  as  Nature  in- 
tended. Here,  on  gradients  which  Nature,  in  his 
case  at  least,  never  intended,  he  ran,  to  my  thinking, 
as  helpless  as  a  cab-horse,  and  with  about  the  same 
look  of  discouragement. 

It  is  impossible  to  say,  with  a  horse  of  the  tem- 
perament of  Ingebrigt  when  at  three  years  of  age, 
what  would  have  been  the  result  if  his  sensitiveness 
had  been  humored,  to  the  extent  that  he  would  never 
have  been  galloped  or  raced  on  other  than  level 
ground,  and  not  beyond,  in  point  of  distance,  five  or 
six  furlongs.  Built  on  lines  wholly  for  speed,  with 
"recoil"  so  prompt  that  the  strength  of  his  back  must 
have  been  prodigious,  one  marvels  that  a  horse  pos- 
sessing special  characteristics  like  this  should  be 
taken  out  of  his  sphere,  and  put  to  accompllsli  things 
for  which  he  is  wholly  unfitted.  Tliis  compels  me 
to  say  that,  in  this  particular,  the  art  of  training  ap- 
pears to  fail  in  a  way  not  to  he  exp(}cted,  seeing  the 
results  of  experience  and  good  judgment  in  other 
directions. 

As  a  rule,  owmers  seldom  exhibit  skill  or  judgment 


44  FLAT-RACINO    EXPLAINED. 

in  the  placing  of  tUoir  Li^rses,  though  in  this  respect 
I  am  aware  there  are  very  notable  exceptions.  For 
owners  makiag  mistakes  of  the  kind  there  are 
legitimate  excuses;  but  when  it  is  known  that  if  (en- 
tries are  aot  made  by  trainers  in  their  behalf,  it  is 
done  under  the  guidance,  and  most  probably  at  the 
suggestion,  of  tht  latter,  then  it  is  primarily  trainers, 
and  trainers  only,  who  are  to  be  blamed  for  tlie 
blunders  that  are  made. 

It  is  lamentable,  in  a  sense,  when  one  goes,  as  I  so 
often  do,  lo  enjoy  racing  as  the  most  exhilaratir-g 
and  delightful  of  all  outdoor  sports,  to  observe  _so 
many  Ul-2:>laced  horses  in  the  events  that  come  on  for 
decision  in  the  course  of  a  sicgle  day. 

In  this  respect  it  is  no  common  thing  to  see  a  beau- 
tiful horse,  full  of  point,?  for  a  race  he  is  in,  revel  in 
delight  at  his  work,  and  win  at  his  ease.  Here  \^as 
a  happy  seleciion  of  ground,  a  straightaway  course, 
and  not  very  far  removed  from  the  level.  *Ju  an- 
other occasion  I  may  see  him  as  fit  and  as  bright- 
looking  as  a  star.  He  goes  to  the  post  not  quite  so 
jauntily,  probably  not  liking  the  ground.  One  sees 
him  get  well  away  and  come  on  in  front  till  he 
reaches  the  hill,  when  he  suddenly  falters  and  loses 
his  place.  Hard  driven,  one  will  see  him  still  strug- 
gle on,  but  to  be  beaten  for  speed,  and  to  return  to 
weigh  in  apparently  downcast  and  discouraged. 


OWNERS  AND    TRAINERS.  45 

This  to  a  large  extent  is  typical  of  the  happening 
of  events  in  racing.  One  has  applied  the  watch, 
which  is  unerring  in  the  information  it  gives,  only  to 
discover  the  utter  want  of  analogy  between  the 
races  themselves  and  between  the  performances  of 
the  horse.  The  first  of  these  races  will  probably 
have  been  run  at  a  high  rate  of  speed;  while  In  the 
latter  case,  after  allowing  for  the  gradients  and 
making  a  careful  comparison  of  previous  running 
over  the  same  ground,  it  will  be  found  the  speed  was 
slow,  and  the  performance  even  of  the  winner  of  lit- 
tle merit. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

JOCKEYS. 

As  a  rule,  jockeys  are  a  much-abused  class — that 
is,  when  they  do  not  win,  though  they  are  much 
belauded  when  they  do.  This,  I  am  afraid,  is 
the  fate  of  other  people  as  well  as  jockeys.  Per- 
verseness  is  not  a  characteristic  of  the  public  in 
general;  but  when  the  monej'  is  on.  who  is  not 
perverse  should  the  happening  of  events  not  accord 
with  preconceived  anticipations? 

The  art  of  race-riding  has  not  undergone  many 
changes,  at  least  in  this  country,  during  the  past 
half-century,  and  I  think  the  jockeys  of  to-day 
compare  favorably  with  those  we  have  seen  of  late 
years.  The  methods  of  Fordham  and  Archer,  which 
were  original  methods  in  recent  times,  have  been 
perpetuated  in  the  younger  generation  of  jockeys, 
and  so  far.  in  the  matter  of  race-riding,  may  be  sBid 
to  liave  satisfied  the  requirement^  of  both  owners 


JOCKEYS  47 

and  trainers  pretty  consistently.  The  advent,  how- 
ever, of  the  American  joc-keys — Sims  and  RielT, 
and  more  recently  Sloan — so  altered  the  corapl?xion 
of  things  by  the  style  of  riding  they  introduced  that, 
unless  our  jockeys  can  show  us  something  fresh — 
something  we  have  yet  been  unacquainted  with — 
it  will  be  difficult  for  them  in  public  estimation,  I 
think,  to  keep  pace  with  present  surroundings. 

Some  time  ago.  Sims  and  Rieff  showed  the  Brit- 
ish racing  public  what  they  could  do  in  the  saddle; 
but  these  jockeys,  skilled  as  they  were,  cannot  be 
said  to  have  then  had  a  very  appreciative  audi- 
ence. Their  style  of  riding,  the  manner  of  placing 
themselves  on  the  back  of  the  horse,  was  new,  and 
being  new  was  rather  derided  in  consequence,  es- 
pecially by  old-fashioned,  out-of-date  people.  But 
perhaps  the  worst  that  has  to  be  said  is  that  no- 
body, not  even  one  among  the  most  experienced 
horsemen  in  the  country,  could  be  found  to  be  able 
to  make  the  discovery  that  there  was  scientfic 
method  in  it.  I  do  not  say  thej'  were  unwilling 
to  learn,  but  the  fact  is  the  style  did  not  please,  and 
ponsequenly  they  saw  comparatively  little  to  merit 
approbation.  The  result  was  these  two  good 
jockeys  got  no  riding  outside  their  own  stable,  and 
it  never  came  to  my  knowledge  they  were  offered  a 
juount  by  any  gne  to  enable  them  to  ^how  what  they 


48  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

could  do  on  English  horses.  With  some  few  excep- 
tions the  running  of  the  American  horses  during 
the  season  to  which  I  refer  was  a  little  disappoint- 
ing. The  explanation  given  was  that  they  were 
unused  to  our  English  grass  tracks,  but  for  my  part 
I  did  not  think  the  horses  were  by  any  means  fully 
acclimatized.  For  all  that,  these  two  jockeys  put 
in  some  smart  riding,  and  under  the  watch  made 
our  English  style  look  comparatively  small.  They 
rode  as  Sloan  always  rides,  viz.,  fo  time,  a  method 
which  makes  a  visible  impression  when  the  win- 
ning-post is  reached,  for,  instead  of  being  on  a 
beaten  horse,  there  is  generally  plenty  left  to  finish 
with,  and  most  likely  something  to  spare. 

With  reference  to  the  riding-seat  of  the  jockeys 
I  have  mentioned,  and  to  which  so  much  excep- 
tion is  taken,  I  have  personally  not  been  a  little 
surprised  its  advantages  have  not  been  more  read- 
ily recognized.  Never  having  seen  the  style  of  rid- 
ing put  to  practical  test  before  the  American 
jockeys  introduced  it  here,  I  cannot  be  accused  of 
being  unduly  influenced  in  its  favor;  but  feeling 
convinced  that  riding  in  the  way  these  jockeys 
did  there  was  reason  for  it,  and  that,  too,  on  proba- 
bly substantial  grounds,  I  was  soon  able  to  dis 
cover  its  meaning.  It  must  be  quite  understood  I 
cjo  not  enter  into  the  pontroversy  whiph  jtook  place 


JOCKEYS  49 

some  time  ago  in  the  sporting  press  on  tliis  sub- 
ject; and,  fiirtliermore,  tliat  I  do  not  venture  to 
reply  to  the  very  foolish  letters  that  Avere  pub- 
lished, not  one  of  wliieh  was  a  credit  to  the  sagac- 
ity of  the  writer. 

The  forward  seat  on  the  withers,  with  the  legs 
tlirnst  still  more  forward  and  the  head  and 
shoulders  poised  over  the  horse's  neck,  to  enable 
the  liands  to  almost  touch  the  bit  in  his  mouth,  is  in 
itself  devised  to  avoid  all  possible  wind-pressure 
against  tlie  body  of  tlie  rider.  At  tlie  same  time 
remove  every  ounce  of  weight  that  can  be  from  the 
saddle,  that  it  may  not  impede  the  natural  curve  of 
the  back  of  the  horse  as  it  rises  and  falls  (in  his 
stride),  to  permit  the  full  underreach  and  propulsion 
from  the  hind-quarters — in  successive  order  like  a 
piece  of  machinery — as  he  gallops. 

There  is  surely  no  one  in  charge  of  horses,  or, 
I  may  say,  aciiuainted  with  horses,  who  does  not 
know  that  tlie  back  of  a  horse  as  he  gallops  bends 
or  curves  to  almost  reach  the  point  of  a  half- 
circle.  Without  this  'curve'  it  would  be  impossible 
to  get  underreach,  and  Avithout  underreach  a  hcirso 
is  practically  without  speed. 

If  anybody  doubts — or,  to  put  it  milder,  is  un- 
acquainted with — the  extent  to  which  a  horse 
'curves'   his  back  Avhen  galloping,   and  the  effect 


50  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

it  has  upon  his  speed,  let  him  get  on  something 
that  can  go  a  bit  and  chase  a  loose  horse  in  a  field, 
and  if  that  animal  does  not  show  him  all  I  hare 
expressed  he  will  be  blind  indeed.  As  a  hunting 
man,  intimately  acquainted  with  horses  all  my 
life,  and  having  had  experience  of  them  under  al- 
most every  condition,  I  do  not  think  one  would  be 
able  to  boast  much  of  one's  alphabetical  knowledge 
in  the  matter  of  horse-lore  should  I  not  have  made 
the  discovery  long  ago  that  speed,  whether  of  high 
or  of  low  degree  in  horses,  was  the  outcome,  or 
derived  from,  the  spinal  construction  of  the  animal 
frame. 

A  horse  possessing  very  great  speed  must  neces- 
sarily have  abnormal  spinal  structure  wherewith 
to  effect  what  I  must  call  'prompt  recoil  action'  so 
soon  as  the  full  hind-quarter  leverage  has  been  ex- 
pended. This  'recoil,'  this  recovery  to  the  original 
position  after  the  full  power  of  the  whole  frame 
has  been  exerted,  it  should  always  be  remembered, 
is  the  initial  or  primary  condition  of  speed  in 
horses.  — 

In  the  course  of  a  single  season  how  constantly 
we  see  it  represented  that  certain  horses  have  'lost 
their  speed.'  And  do  we  not  also  see  those  animals 
going  from  bad  to  worse,  without  a  suggestion  they 
are  troubled  with  any  kind  of  unsoundness?  If  it 
were  fair  to  their  owners  to  do  so,  I  think  it  would 


JOCKEYS  51 

be  attended  with  little  difficulty  to  mention  the 
names  of  a  number  of  horses  within  a  given  time 
that  have  most  sensibly  'lost  speed,'  and  all  of 
them,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  from  the  same 
cause.  These  stride  out  quite  evenly,  and  appar- 
ently with  plenty  of  vigor,  but  the  'recoil'  is  slow, 
and  if  you  watch  it  closely,  you  will  observe  it  to 
be  intermittent,  and  finally  to  unmistakably  'dwell,' 
as  the  horse  continufs  to  gallop. 

When  a  horse,  so  to  speak,  lingei's  or  dwells  in 
his  stride  in  the  way  I  have  described,  the  reten- 
tion of  a  certain  fixed  rate  of  speed  is  out  of  the 
question,  and  as  this  infirmity  increases  he  be- 
comes slower  and  slower  as  time  goes  on. 

Then,  again,  how  often  we  hear  it  stated,  and  also 
see  it  in  print,  that  during  a  race  a  certain  horse 
had  'turned  it  up'  or  '  cut  it  when  the  pinch  came,' 
but  for  which  he  'undoubtedly  would  have  won!' 
This  is  alwaj's  set  down  to  be  an  exhibition  of 
temper,  and  many  a  good  horse  has  paid  the  penal- 
ty of  his  sex  in  consequence  of  it,  and  been  from 
thence  on  transformed  into  a  jumper. 

Now,  what  is  the  origin  of  this  failure  in  're- 
coil,' this  'lingering  or  dwelling'  by  a  horse  in  his 
stride,  which  I  have  ventured  to  stigmatize  as  an 
'infirmity'?  The  origin  or  seat  of  ailment — if  such 
it  can  be  called — may  best  be  stated  as  a  weaken- 
ing or  slackening  of  the  spinal  structure,  the  mus- 


52  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

ciilar  fibre  of  the  back  and  loins  being  a  part  of 
that  which  I  have  so  cU scribed.  What  may  be  the 
precise  anatomical  effect  prodnced  on  this  Vital 
part  of  a  horse's  organization  I  am  not  prepared 
to  say  certainly  from  a  scientific  point  of  view. 
From  a  physical  point,  and  from  observation  and 
general  stndy,  I  have  long  arrived  at  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  is  wholly  caused  by  excessive  training 
and  undue  riding  in  races  on  gradients  for  which 
a  horse  may  not  have  the  least  possible  natural 
aptitude  or  qualification. 

When  a  horse  has  'lost  speed/  it  is  generally  sup- 
posed he  is  short  of  work.  The  universal  practice 
then  is  to  increase  his  gallops,  and  the  training  art 
will  endeavor  to  wring  more  out  of  him  by  its 
means.  When  this  is  done,  the  horse  drifts  fr.m 
bad  to  worse,  and  the  more  fast  work  he  is  put  to 
do,  the  sooner  his  career  on  the  turf  comes  to  an 
end. 

I  have  often  made  the  inquiry  of  owners,  train- 
ers, and  also  jockeys,  in  order  to  discover,  from 
their  point  of  view,  in  what  part  of  a  horse's  or- 
ganization, taking  him  from  head  to  foot,  he  most 
feels  the  effect  when  he  is  beaten  ("all  out,''  as  the 
term  is),  in  a  race,  fixing  the  distance  at  five  fur- 
longs, or  say  any  distance  up  to  two  and  a  half 
miles.     I  cannot  say  my  fund  of  information  has 


JOCKEYS  53 

been  nmeh  enhanced  by  doing  this.  Some  think  one 
tiling  and  some  another,  but  I  never  got  anything 
definite  or  reliable  upon  the  subject,  except,  perhaps, 
the  following,  from  one  of  the  old  hands  amongst 
the  jockeys.  Said  he:  "When  a  hoise  is  beat,  he's 
beat,  and  it  don't  take  us  long  to  find  that  out  when 
we  wants  him  to  finish." 

Generally  speaking,  I  think  racing  people  are  of 
opinion  that  at  the  end  of  a  five-furlong  race  a 
horse  feels  more  distressed  in  his  wind  than  else- 
where, mostly  on  account  of  his  blowing  pretty 
freely.  When,  however,  you  have  to  remember  that 
a  horse  having  great  speed  takes  1  min.  2  sec.  to 
2  1-2  sec.  to  cover  a  distance  of  five  furlongs  on 
the  level,  and  that  the  shorter  the  time,  the  better 
and  fresher  he  is  at  the  finish,  one  dare  not  be  too 
certain  the  conclusions  arrived  at  are  altogether  well 
founded. 

But  there  is  this  also  to  remember:  A  horse  run- 
ning at  high  speed  does  not  breathe  from  the  lungs 
in  covering  a  distance  of  five  furlongs,  his  respira- 
tion being  entirely  confined  to  the  head  and  throat, 
so  that  his  "wind,"  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  put, 
is  comparatively  unaffected  by  the  exertion.  There 
cannot  be  the  least  doubt  that  horses  in  all  cases 
charge  their  lungs  with  as  much  air  as  is  possible 
on  setting  off,  as  it  were,  in  preparation  for  any  ex- 


54  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

crtiou  that  is  to  come.  If  the  exertion  is  not  acute, 
ihe  air  passes  out  of  the  lungs,  and  is  replenished 
at  will.  When,  however,  the  exertion  becomes  sud- 
denly acute,  as  in  jumping  off  and  galloping  on  at 
high  pressure,  the  stock  of  air  with  which  the  lungs 
are  charged  exhausts,  in  proportion  to  the  poAver 
of  retention  a  horse  may  possess,  pending  the  oppor- 
tunity of  replenishing  the  lungs,  and  through  the 
lungs  the  entire  system,  with  a  new  supply. 

As  a  horse  is  only  able  to  gallop  so  long  as  the 
lungs  remain  charged  with  air,  it  must  always  be 
a  question  with  all  horses  when  running  at  higli 
speed  how  long  this  supply  will  last.  That  horses 
differ  to  a  large  extent  in  lung  capacity  is  well 
known,  but  it  must  not  be  overlooked  it  is  duration 
of  time,  rather  than  rate  of  sx)eed,  that  must  always 
determine  the  maximum  extent  of  a  horse's  poAvers. 
In  this  respect  a  curious  fact  arises,  and  as  it  is 
indisputable,  I  cannot  too  strongly  impress  it  upon 
jockeys,  as  well  as  upon  all  persons  interested  in 
racing.  It  is  this — and  I  have  constantly  found  it 
to  be  so — a  horse  having  won  a  five  or  six  furlong 
race  in  very  fast  time,  finishing  full  of  running, 
when  again  running  over  the  same  ground,  under 
the  same  conditions,  and  some  three  or  four  sec- 
onds longer  time  is  taken  in  the  duration  of  the 
race,  has  not  only  figured  among  the  beaten  horses, 
but  pulled  up  very  much  distressed.    Hprsjffs  al- 


JOCKEYS  55 

ways  show  distress  when  they  pull  up  at  the  end 
of  five  or  six  furlongs  after  a  slow-run  race,  and 
just  the  contrary  when  the  speed  has  been  fast. 

The  lung  capacity  in  horses  is  necessarily  a  dif- 
ficult question,  but  I  am  far  from  saying  it  cannot 
be  pretty  accurately  ascertained.  On  a  straight  and 
level  course  I  should  fix  one  and  a  quarter  miles, 
or  ten  furlongs,  as  the  extreme  limit  a  horse  is  able 
to  gallop  at  high  speed  on  the  stock  of  air  with 
which  he  has  supplied  himself  on  jumping  oil  in 
a  race.  It  is  far  more  accurate,  however,  to  gauga 
it,  as  I  have  said,  by  "period  of  time"  than  by  dis- 
tance; and  when  high  speed  has  been  maintained,  I 
have  found  the  distance  covered  at  the  expiration 
of  a  given  time  to  be  extremely  coiTect. 

Everybody  who  goes  racing  has  experienced  the 
very  great  discrepancy  there  is  in  the  result  be- 
tween races  run  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  and  those 
run  at  a  low  rate,  or,  say,  in  the  latter  case,  accord- 
ing to  the  beau-ideal  method  so  popular  with  very 
many  people — viz.,  to  "wait,  and  then  make  one  run 
or  dash  at  the  finish."  Races  so  run  must  necessa- 
rily have  a  totally  different  result,  and  they  always 
have.  It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  the  same  horse 
would  win  in  either  case,  or  that  the  same  horses 
would  be  placed  even  in  both  instances.  And,  then, 
what  happens  in  races  in  this  respect  up  to  a  f!i,Sr 


56  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

taiice  of  oue  and  a  quarter  miles  would  be  different 
m  result  with  another  set  of  horses  in  races  of  one 
and  a  half  miles  and  upwards.  In  the  latter — 
that  is  to  say,  in  races  of  one  and  a  half  miles  and 
upwards — the  discrepancy  would  not  be  so  great, 
for  it  is  quite  possible,  whether  these  be  run  fast  or 
sloAv,  the  same  horse  may  win,  and  the  same  horses 
likewise  may  be  placed. 

Referring  to  the  former  cases,  in  races  up  to  one 
and  a  quarter  miles,  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  these 
are  run  under  conditions  that  do  not  alloAV  a.  re- 
charging of  air  in  a  horse's  lungs,  and  the  shorter 
the  time  that  is  taken  to  cover  the  distance,  the 
more  certain  will  be  the  result.  If  the  same  race 
should  be  run  at  low  sjK^cd  or  on  the  "oue  run  or 
dash"  idea,  the  process  of  waiting  so  highly  thought 
of  may  or  may  not  enable  a  horse  to  recharge  with 
air.  Should  a  horse  happen  to  be  successful  in  this, 
he  will  be  the  winner. 

In  slow-run  races  at  five  furlongs,  for  instance, 
if  3'ou  see  a  liorse  "drop  from  the  clouds, '*  as  the 
saying  is,  and,  to  the  astonishm  nt  of  evtnybody, 
come  out  and  win  l)y  lengths  at  the  tinish,  and 
Ihen  hardly  blow  enougli  to  put  out  a  caudle, 
this  animal  by  some  means,  possibly  by  accident, 
got  his  lungs  recharged  with  air,  while  all  the  other 
horses  failed  to  do  so.  If  it  is,  therefore,  desirable 
to  cherish  the  fossil  idea  of  the  "glorious  uncer- 


JOCKEYS  57 

taiiity"  ill  racing,  joelveys  will  continue  to  "wait 
and  come  with  one  run  or  dash  at  the  finish;"  but  I 
am  hoping,  by  what  is  set  out  in  the  pages  of  this 
work.  I  may  to  some  small  extent  help  to  "screw 
the  neck"  of  that  long-continued  and,  I  may  add, 
egregious  folly. 

I  can  only  infer  that  races  of  one  and  a  half  miles 
and  upwards  arc  not  run  without  reinliating  the 
lungs.  Our  English  method  of  riding  this  kind 
of  races  in  every  way  favors  the  idea  that  horses 
do  reiuflate,  or,  as  I  have  said,  "recharge,"  the  rate 
of  speed  not  being  so  fast  as  to  prevent  it.  Further- 
more, we  have  no  straightawaj'  mile  and  a  half 
courses,  and  where  there  are  turns  and  necessities 
for  easing  up  in  running,  horses  invariably  can 
manage  to  get  some  air  in.  Wlien  they  can  do  this, 
they  do  not  get  beaten  very  readily. 

In  the  matter  of  race-riding,  however,  jockeys,  it 
would  seem,  are  as  yet  a  longish  way  from  having 
acquired  the  necessary  knowledge  of  the  subject 
to  enable  them  to  accomplish  the  task  of  rein- 
flating  a  horse's  lungs,  quite  apart  from  the  some- 
what delicate  art  of  effecting  it  at  the  right  or 
critical  moment. 

Consistent  with  rather  ancient,  and  I  am  afraid 
prejudiced,  notions,  they  too  often  prefer  to  sit 
still  in  the  saddle,   and  in  many  cases  pull  and 


58  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

dodge  their  mount  about,  until  in  long  races  be 
has  spun  himself  out.  When  this  happens,  and 
the  horse  cannot  be  driven  to  reacli  the  winning- 
post  (making  practically  only  a  poor  show  at  the 
finish),  the  same  old  story  always  comes  up  to 
account  for  it.  "The  horse  had  a  bit  the  worst 
of  the  weights,  and  could  not  quite  get  home.  He 
was  short  a  gallop  or  two,  perhaps,  but  will  do 
better  next  time." 

While  horses  of  suflScient  lung  capacity  can  be 
trained  and  ridden  to  run  their  races  at  various 
distances  up  to  one  and  a  quarter  miles  at  high 
Sliced  without  reinflatiug  the  lungs,  so  by  the 
adoption  of  the  process  of  reinflatiou,  as  I  have 
said,  horses  can  be  trained  and  ridden  to  run  at 
liigh  speed  any  distance  upwards  prescribed  by  the 
rules  of  racing. 

To  say  that  English  jockeys  cannot  ride  on  these 
lines  would  certainly  be  very  unfair  to  them,  espe- 
cially when  we  know  how  many  of  them  are  en- 
dowed with  keen  observation  and  no  inconsiderable 
intelligence.  But  whether  they  will  find  a  means 
of  breaking  away  from  the  old  style,  and  in  its 
place  have  recourse  to  the  scientific  methods  Sloan 
lias  favored  us  with,  Avhich  I  have  ventured  to  point 
out,  remains  to  be  seen.  Instead  of  the  suicidal 
policy  of  "waiting"— a  policy  Sloan  does  not  put 
)pt,o  practice— perhaps  they  will  be  jufiuced  to  rcr 


JOCKEYS  59 

fleet  on  the  manner  of  riding  that  jockey  displayed 
in  the  Liverpool  Cup  last  autumn  on  perhaps,  in 
point  of  merit,  not  one  of  the  best  animals  running 
in  the  race,  in  time  as  bad  as  could  be.  However, 
experience  tells  us  that  jockey  knows  how  to  inflate 
a  horse's  lungs  as  a  race  proceeds,  and  any  one  tak- 
ing the  trouble  to  ascertain  the  result  of  it  will  read- 
ily find  it  amongst  the  records  of  the  past  season. 
He  rode  winner  after  winner  that  should  not  have 
been  winners,  at  least  on  those  occasions,  if  the 
idea  of  merit  was  worth  anything. 

It  will  be  of  interest,  perhaps,  and  at  the  same 
time  in  a  w^ay  tend  to  illustrate  what  I  have  pre- 
viously written,  if  I  refer  to  the  running  of  Peter, 
a  horse  that  achieved  a  famous  victory  in  the 
Royal  Hunt  Cup  as  Ascot  nearly  twenty  years 
ago,  in  the  then  popular  colors  of  that  fine  sports- 
man. Sir  John  B.  Astley,  Bart, 

Of  this  splendid  success,  rendered  historic  by 
sporting  writers  of  every  degree,  the  simple  facts, 
as  I  have  always  understood  them,  were  these. 
After  being  backed  by  his  owner,  and,  indeed,  by 
many  others,  to  win  a  large  stake  (so  popufar  was 
anything  carrying  the  canary  jacket  in  those  days), 
the  horse  only  got  home,  to  land  them  their  money, 
after  stopping  to  kick  whilst  the  race  was  being 
run,  and  when  the  field  had  got  about  half  way 
through  the  Journey. 


60  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED, 

That  a  horse  should  have  possessed  such  sterling 
qualities,  having  been  left  behind  the  entire  field  of 
runners,  to  have  been  able  to  rejoin  his  horses, 
and  win  with  9  st.  4  lb.  on  his  back  notwithstand- 
ing, has  been  the  theme  of  many  a  pen,  brimming 
over  with  enthusiasm,  from  that  day  to  this. 

But  they  have  always  forgotten  to  tell  us  that, 
had  it  not  been  for  this  stopping  to  kiclv,  or  what- 
ever the  horse  did,  no  Peter  would  have  won  that 
day.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  stopped  to  put  his 
head  down,  and  the  "kicking"  really  existed  only 
in  the  imagination  of  the  writers.  It  can  never  be 
known  what  actually  caused  the  horse  to  stop,  but 
it  is  quite  certain  he  was  dead  settled  as  far  as 
racing  was  concerned  when  he  did  so.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  of  this,  however,  tliat  he  put  his  head 
down  to  take  in  air,  and,  being  a  horse  that  carried 
his  head  high,  was  not  able  to  get  beyond  five  fur- 
longs on  the  Ascot  gradients.  He  won,  as  horses 
are  able  to  do  when  the  wind  is  in  them,  but  are 
helpless  when  their  lungs  are  empty. 

But  perhaps  one  of  the  most  remarkable  wins  to 
be  seen  from  a  big  field  of  horses  of  late  years 
was  that  Rockdove  in  the  Cesarewitcli  of  1895. 
All  along  that  splendid  piece  of  galloping  ground, 
from  the  point  where  they  come  into  view  after 
passing  the  ditch,  Rockdove  was  going  so  well  that 
defeat  seemed  impossible.    However,  nearing  tl^e 


JOCKEYS  61 

Rowley  Mile  Stand,  she  was  observed  to  falter, 
then  swerve  to  the  left,  or  near  side,  and  momen- 
tarily stop.  With  a  bound,  however,  the  mare  was 
in  her  stride  again,  and,  renewing  the  struggle  with 
as  it  were  a  fresh  start,  she  dashed  past  the  post 
full  of  running,  winning  comparatively  in  a  canter. 
To  have  done  this  tells  how  dead  settled  every  other 
horse  in  the  race  was,  and  the  snail's  pace  at  which 
they  w^ere  going. 

Why  did  Rockdove  stop?  Why  was  it  that  at 
the  end  of  two  and  a  quarter  miles  she  was  able  to 
finish  so  full  of  running,  and  as  a  question  of  form 
accomplish  a  performance  she  was  never  equal  to 
either  before  or  after  during  her  career  on  the  turf? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  are  necessarily 
obvious.  As  in  Peter's  case,  the  mare  was,  at  the 
point  where  she  stopped,  equally  settled,  but  acci- 
dentally getting  her  lungs  recharged,  the  previous 
exertion  was  of  little  consequence,  and  she  was 
ready  for  another  "burst"  of  one  and  a  quarter 
miles,  probably  as  fresh  as  when  she  started.  I 
have  said  the  fact  of  the  mare  getting  air  into  her 
lungs  was  "accidental,"  and  I  believe  that  to  be  so. 
It  cannot  be  said  the  method  of  riding  by  the  jockey 
contributed  anything  to  invest  the  mare  with  new 
running  powers,  except  by  accident,  for  so  far  our 
jockeys  even   now  have  not   acquired  the   art   of 


62  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

doing  that  which  it  is  by  no  means  common  for 
horses,  when  they  get  the  chance,  to  do  for  them- 
selves. 

But,  after  all,  where  would  Roekdove  have  been 
in  the  race  had  the  jockeys  on  other  horses  been 
able  to  do  for  them  what  the  mare  in  que.^tion  had 
done  for  herself? 

Horses,  as  I  have  said  before,  having  the  most 
capacious  lungs  cannot  get  beyond  a  mile  and  a 
quarter  in  a  fast  run  race  on  a  level  course  without 
a  fresh  supply,  and  when  there  are  gradients  they 
cannot  get  that  distance,  or  anything  like  it. 

From  the  same  point  of  view  I  may  take  the 
running  of  Georgic  at  Manchester,  in  the  Cam- 
bridgeshire, and  in  the  Old  Cambridgeshire,  last 
autumn.  At  the  first  named  place  there  is  no  doubt 
that,  at  tlje  speed  at  which  the  race  was  run,  it  was 
accomplished  at  one  burst  without  reinflation  of  the 
lungs. 

In  the  Cambridgeshire  there  is  also  no  doubt  it 
was  done  at  one  "burst,"  and  the  watch  quite  clear- 
ly made  it  to  be  so.  In  tue  Old  Cambridgeshire  tl.e 
mare  ran  with  one  "burst"  only,  and  without  rein- 
flation she  just  got  the  running  distance,  as  would 
be  shown  to  be  a  mile  and  a  quarter  on  the  level, 
beyond  which,  as  the  race  was  run,  she  could  not  be 
expected  to  go. 

The  winner  Nunsuch  was  ridden  by  Sloan,  who 


JOCKEYS  63 

did  not  fail  to  reinflate  the  filly's  lungs,  I  should  ex- 
pect, somewhere  about  the  Red  Post  when  he  got 
there,  and  as  a  consequence  she  won  by  ten  lengths. 
Had  Sloan  ridden  Georgic,  and  reinflated  as  I  have 
said,  that  mare  would  have  won  by  ten  lengths 
instead  of  the  other. 

We  in  this  country  are  universally  supposed  to 
be  scientific  and  practical,  and  1  believe  in  most 
things  we  are,  but  in  the  matter  of  race-riding  we 
certainly  are  not.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in 
giving  numerous  instances  of  hoists'  running  con- 
firming what  I  have  above  set  out,  but  I  think  the 
particulars  I  have  given  need  not  be  enlarged  upon. 

With  reference  to  the  system  of  race-riding  our 
jockeys  pursue,  it  has  to  be  expressly  pointed  out 
how  very  little  the  teaching  of  anatomical  science 
has  hitherto  been  of  advantage  to  them.  Jockeys, 
we  know,  ride  to  orders.  Apart  from  this,  we  do 
not  forget  they  have  served  a  long  probationary 
period  in  a  training  stable,  to  learn  their  business, 
where,  under  the  watchful  eye  of  the  trainer,  who 
may  have  been  a  jockey  himself,  they  have  the  best 
of  guidance  in  every  branch  of  their  calling. 

It  is  frequently  said  people  "expect  too  much  of 
jockeys."  That,  as  they  are  as  capable  now  as 
jockeys  have  ever  been,  should  be  deemed  sufficient- 
ly satisfactory.     I  am  certainly  not  one  who  would 


64  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

seek  to  disparage  their  efforts  in  any  way;  but  for 
all  that,  I  do  not  shut  my  eyes  to  there  being  much 
room  for  improvement.  There  is  room  for  scientific 
advancement  in  the  art  of  race-riding,  and  I  shonkl 
be  no  friend  to  them  or  their  calling  if  I  did  not  say 
so.  It  is  out  of  the  question  they  will  ever  go  back 
to  the  time  when  one  of  their  order  evinced  his 
intelligence  in  describing  a  horse  as  "a  thing  with 
four  legs,  like  a  table;"  but  for  all  that,  race-riding 
to  be  a  perfect  art  must  be  capable  of  much  more 
than  we  have  seen.  As  an  instance  of  this,  as 
showing  the  shortcomings  of  race-riding  in  one 
particular  only,  without  going  into  others  that  are 
present  to  me  as  I  write,  take  the  case  of  a  jockey 
riding  what  is  called  a  "waiting  race,"  and  the 
effect  it  has  from  a  practical,  as  well  as  from  a 
scientific,  point  of  view.  In  thus  riding,  by  force 
of  circumstances,  a  jockey  is  compelled  to  sit  back 
in  the  saddle.  If  the  horse  is  not  a  puller,  and  only 
needs  to  be  "steadied,"  the  weight  in  the  seat  of  the 
saddle  impedes  the  "curve"  in  the  back  of  the 
horse,  by  which  his  stride  is  shortened  to  the  extent 
that  in  a  race  of  five  furlongs  only,  several  lengths 
^will  be  lost.  If  the  horse  is  only  a  moderate  puller, 
the  act  of  holding  against  the  horse  has  the  effect 
not  only  of  shortening  the  horse's  stride  to  the  ex- 
tent I  have  said,  but  it  becomes  a  lever,  with  the 
seat  in  the  saddle  as  the  fulcrum,  against  the  curve 


JOCKEYS  65 

in  the  back  of  the  horse.  And  not  only  is  the  stride 
shortened  the  more  the  horse  pulls,  and  an  increased 
distance  of  ground  lost,  but  the  pressure  caused  by 
the  leverage  becomes  equivalent  to  more  than 
doubling  the  weight  otherwise  to  be  carried. 

It  is  a  fact  that  horses  exhaust  the  more  quickly 
as  the  pressure  against  the  curve  in  the  back  is 
enforced,  by  the  waste  of  energy  that  necessarily  is 
created. 

There  is  nothing  so  detrimental  to  success  in  rac- 
ing, as  Lord  Durham  said,  as  "waste  of  energy." 
Upon  this  point,  I  very  strongly  recommend  jockeys 
to  ascertain  for  themselves  what  the  loss  of  an 
inch  or  two  in  a  horse's  stride  amounts  to  at  the  end 
of  a  race,  say  at  all  racing  distances. 

It  is  a  simple  arithmetical  calculation  that  obvi- 
ously will  be  of  the  greatest  possible  value  to  them. 

As  the  length  horses  stride  in  tlieir  gallop  differs 
so  very  materially,  my  calculation  can  only  be 
based  on  average.  However,  taking  it  at  that,  it 
may  be  safely  put  that  for  evevi/  inch  a  horse  loses 
in  his  stride  in  a  race  of  five  furlongs  he  will  be  a 
length  in  arrear,  and  will  consequently  liave  a 
length,  or  it  may  be  many  lengths,  to  make  up  at 
the  finish.  Races  at  longer  distances  increase  pro- 
portionately, except  in  the  case  of  a  very  sliort- 
striding  horse,  when  the  loss  will  b3  greater. 


66  FLAT-RACTNCr    EXPLAINED. 

A  linrd-pnlling  horse,  by  the  process  of  **wait- 
ing,"  would  lose  about  ten  inches  per  stride.  I  have 
seen  them  lose  much  more  than  this,  but  I  think 
ten  inches  may  be  reckoned  a  fair  average.  -H 

I  have  said  in  a  previous  chapter  that  Sloan's 
method  of  riding  was  "riding  to  time,"  or,  in  the 
words  of  Lord  Durham,  "to  cover  the  allotted  dis- 
tance of  ground  in  the  shortest  time."  That  this  is 
correct  in  principle  there  cannot  be  any  doubt,  and 
for  two  very  important  reasons.  In  the  first  place, 
it  obviates  all  chance  of  "waste  of  energy"  in  the 
horse;  while  in  the  second  it  enables  every  atom  of 
physical  strength  a  horse  has  got  within  him  to  be 
utilized  to  the  utmost  possible  advantage.  Riding 
to  "time"  is  essentially  a  steady  rate  of  progression 
at  high,  as  distinguished  from  excessive,  speed 
from  start  to  finish. 

As  far  as  it  is  possible,  a  horse  should  be  ridden 
with  an  evenness  and  regularity,  which  perhaps 
may  be  best  described,  or  explained  by  way  of  illus- 
tration, as  an  arrow  or  bullet  travels  through  the 
air.  When,  however,  a  horse  is  a  hard  puller,  as 
very  many  are,  he  should  under  no  circumstances, 
provided  there  is  plenty  of  room  and  he  is  not  at 
the  heels  of  another  horse,  be  hard  held  or  pulled 
and  hauled  about. 

At  high,  or  indeed  at  excessive,  speed,  should 
the  horse  of  himself  have  set  it,  he  should  be  al- 


JOCKEYS  67 

lowed  to  foiitiniie.  the  effort  of  the  jockey  being, 
so  far  as  the  horse  is  concerned,  alone  directed  to 
keeping  him  steady  in  his  stride,  and  to  steering 
him  into  the  best  available  berth  without  risk  of 
Infringing  the  rules. 

It  is  to  be  feared,  amongst  the  rising  generation 
of  jockeys,  comparatively  little  is  being  done  to 
teach  them  scientific  riding,  adopting  Sloan's  style 
as  a  model.  What  will  be  the  course  of  things  in 
the  future  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

During  the  past  season,  however,  I  was  on  the 
lookout  for  any  newcomer  who  presented  himself, 
and  amongst  all  the  apprentices  I  only  saw  one 
capable  of  grasping  the  idea.  This  appeared  to  be 
a  very  promising  youngster,  by  name  J.  Forest, 
said  to  have  been  schooled  by  Brown,  who  trains 
somewhere  near  Royston.  The  lad  was  badly 
mounted;  but  I  was  pleased  to  see  he  rode  exactly 
to  reproduce  the  correct  style.  I  noticed,  too,  "the 
special  commissioner"  made  favorable  mention  of 
the  lad's  riding,  so  we  may  hope  not  only  to  see 
him  again  when  there  is  riding  on.  but  again  setting 
an  example  on  all  hands  so  worthy  to  be  followed. 


CHAPTER  VJIl. 

IIANDICAI'S. 

It  cannot  be  long  now  before  the  whole  system 
of  handicapping  mnst  be  dealt  with.  It  is  found, 
and  has  been  for  a  considerable  time  past,  to  be 
extremely  unsatisfactory,  and  to  work  on  lines  no- 
body seems  to  clearly  understand. 

The  late  Major  Egerton  was  a  most  assiduous 
handicapper,  and  he  was  thought  by  very  many  to 
have  a  special  gift  in  the  art  of  adjusting  the  bal- 
ance, as  is  were,  between  notoriously  bad  horses 
and  those  having  form  and  creditable  running  cre- 
dentials, with  which  he  had  to  deal  in  framing  a 
handicap.  When  he  failed,  as  I  am  afraid  he  often 
did,  to  give  satisfaction  to  numerous  oAvners,  it  was 
certainly  no  fault  of  his;  for,  as  far  as  human  inge- 
nuity could  go,  that  estimable  and  gallant  gentle- 
man's efforts  were  directed  in  the  most  upright  and 
painstaking  course. 

In  no  sense  could  he  be  called  an  unjust  or  vin- 


HANDICAPS.  69 

dictive  hnndioapper;  yei,  looking  over  the  results 
of  his  labors,  there  were  certainly  times  when 
owners  conlrt  hardly  feel  assured  they  had  been 
fairly  dealt  with.  The  fact  is.  it  was  not  the  gal- 
lant Major  who  was  open  to  reproach;  it  was 
rather  the  principle  upon  which  handicaps  were 
founded,  and  handicapping  of  itself  carried  out, 
not  onl3'  by  him,  but  by  many  others,  both  before 
and  since  his  time. 

I  am  not  aware  there  are  any  prescribed  rules  in 
the  matter  or  manner  of  framing  a  handicap,  the 
principle,  as  most  people  understand  it,  being  a  care- 
ful and  well-noted-up  particular  of  every  horse's 
form  whose  name  figures  in  the  entry,  accompanied 
with  practical  observation  of  the  relative  merits  of 
each  horse's  previous  running  and  what  he  may  or 
may  not  be  capable  of  under  conditions  applicable  to 
the  event  then  under  consideration.  That  it  went 
beyond  Avhat  may  be  called  "an  educated  estimate" 
can  hardly  be  supposed,  but  there  is  little  doubt,  as 
far  as  general  oi)iuiou  went,  it  was  perhaps  the  most 
rational  method  that  could  be  devised,  in  view  of  the 
very  great  difficulty  there  naturally  would  be  in  en- 
deavoring to  give  satisfaction  to  all  parties  immedi- 
ately concerned. 

Another  view  has  been  to  adjust  the  weights  in  a 
handicap  on  a  sort  of  sliding-scale  basis,  by  which  a 


70  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

horse  was  to  be  judged  by  takiug  the  best  form  ho 
had  given  evidence  of,  and  practically  the  worst,  and 
thereupon  strike  a  sort  of  balance  between  the  two. 
This,  as  a  means  of  getting  at  a  horse's  correct  form, 
might  be  satisfactory  to  a  certain  class  of  people,  but 
it  strikes  one  as  being  unreliable,  to  say  the  least, 
and  I  should  think  extremely  haphazard  into  the 
bargain.  Whether  this  method  of  arriving  at  a 
supposed  just  conclusion  has  been  acted  upon  by 
handicappers  I  cannot  say  with  certainty,  but  I 
should  imagine  it  to  be  very  doubtful. 

But  the  extraordinary  thing  about  handicapping 
is  that  it  misses  the  mark  in  what  it  intends  to 
effect.  If  the  idea  of  a  handicap  is  to  so  adjust  the 
weights  as  to  put  all  the  horses  engaged  in  the  race 
on  an  equal  footing,  and  at  the  same  time  giA'e  every 
one  a  fair  chance  of  success,  that  is  just  what  it 
does  not  do.  This,  no  doubt,  to  a  large  number  of 
persons  will  read  as  probably  somewhat  strange,  not 
because  they  may  not  have  thought  out  the  subject 
for  themselves,  but  rather  because  it  is  directly 
opposed  to  a  system  they  may  have  been  familiar 
with,  if  not  wholly  satisfied  with,  practically  all 
their  lives. 

It  nmst  be  said,  however,  that  handicaps  on  the 
present  system  of  adjusting  weights  fail  in  two  very 
material  respects.  First,  they  fail  to  equalize  the 
respective  chances  of  the  horses  engaged  in  a  race. 


HANDICAPS.  71 

being  framed  on  the  presumption  of  running  on  the 
level,  and  without  regard  to  the  necessities  or  the 
requirements  of  gradient;  and  in  the  second,  they 
fail  to  apportion  weight  in  accordance  witli  correct 
running  distance,  surface  measurement  not  being 
running  distance  on  any  course  not  strictly  a  level 
course. 

In  view  of  the  first  of  these  propositions,  it  can- 
not be  contended  that  handicaps  are  framed  other- 
wise than  on  what  I  may  call  "paper"  results,  or 
as  results  come  out  and  appear  in  guide  book  form, 
it  may  be  months,  or  possibly  the  following  year, 
after  some  particular  race  has  taken  place.  In  other 
words,  a  head  or  a  length  beating  is  the  same  for  all 
practical  purposes  in  the  matter  of  adjusting 
weights,  quite  irrespective  of  the  course  where  the 
results  in  question  happened  to  have  occurred.  So 
far  as  the  ground  or  course  is  concerned,  there  is  ab- 
solutely no  distinction  ever  made.  The  figures 
particular  beatings  remain  just  the  same  as  they 
have  been  for  any  period  of  time;  yet  new  courses 
are  constantly  made,  and  a  new  set  of  gradients 
brought  into  use,  to  be  raced  upon  year  by  year. 

What  difference  is  made  in  handicapping  between 
a  head  or  a  length  beating  on  a  level  course,  and  the 
same  results  when  the  race  has  been  run  on  a  steep 
incline?    Positively  none.     Yet  supposing  the  same 


72  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

horses  have  run  under  precisely  the  same  conditions 
on  both  courses,  there  would  not  only  be  a  different 
result,  so  far  as  the  winning  horses  are  concerned, 
for  contemplation,  but  it  is  more  than  probable  the 
winner  on  the  level  would  not  be  placed  on  the  in- 
cline, and  the  winner  on  the  incline  would  not  be 
placed  on  the  level. 

Now  take  a  course  where  there  is  a  decline,  such 
as  at  Epsom,  Lingfleld,  Brighton  and  other  places, 
and  here  you  will  have  a  totally  different  result 
again;  and  if  you  expect  the  winner  on  either  the 
level  or  the  incline  to  show  to  advantage  on  this 
occasion,  the  chances  are  that  both  will  be  out  of  it 
before  the  distance  is  reached.  Of  course,  in  these 
cases  I  am  assuming  the  state  of  the  ground  to  be 
dry;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  should  it  be  Avet,  say  in 
a  sodden  state,  then  I  think  those  who  venture  on  a 
basis  of  calculation  must  be  sanguine  to  a  degree 
slightly  beyond  ordinary  conception. 

Then  again,  by  way  of  further  example  of  what 
handicapping  in  a  large  measure  consists,  take  the 
condition  of  things  we  find  relative  to  a  race,  it  may 
be,  on  the  Royal  Hunt  Cup  course  at  Ascot.  Here 
Avc  have  7  furlongs  and  166  yards  surface  measure- 
ment. In  framing  a  handicap  for  this  course  it 
must  necessarily  be  on  the  basis  of  this  particular 
distance.    With  some  seventy  or  eighty  horses  in 


HANDICAPS.  n 

the  entry,  the  weights  are  by  force  of  circumstances 
allotted  on  the  running  form  shown  by  each  horse, 
as  it  may  have  been  disclosed  on  all  manner  of 
courses  and  under  all  sorts  of  conditions. 

Among  the  number  to  be  weighted  are  horses 
proved  stayers  on  level  courses  up  to  seven  furlongs, 
and  they  may  be  trusted  perhaps  to  even  get  a  mile. 
Attracted  by  the  conditions,  and  especially  the  dis- 
tance to  be  run,  these  horses  get  supported  in  the 
market  by  both  owners  and  those  who  are  not 
owners,  with  the  result,  when  the  race  comes  to  be 
fought  out,  they  make  practically  no  show,  Aviuding 
up.  indeed,  in  most  disappointing  fashion.  Then, 
of  course,  comes  the  usual  howl  of  discontent,  and 
all  sorts  of  unkind  things  said  touching  the  bona 
fides  of  everybody  concerned,  and  this  without  any 
substantial  reason. 

Horses  that  have  done  good  things  and  carried 
big  burdens  on  the.  flat  are  easily  weighted  out 
of  it  at  Ascot,  simply  because  they  cannot  act  on 
the  gradients  they  find  there.  But  there  is  another 
and  perhap  a  more  serious  difficulty  to  encounter. 
The  running  distance,  as  compared  with  7  furlongs 
and  16G  yards  surface  measurement,  makes  the  dis- 
tance of  the  Royal  Hunt  Cup  course,  on  the  level,  to 
require  something  like  a  furlong  more  doing  than 
appears,  and  this  very  naturally  settles  the  preten- 
sions of  horses  of  the  character  I  have  described. 


4  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

As  I  have  said,  taking  the  riiiiiiing  form  of  horses 
gauged  by  their  performances  on  all  kinds  of 
courses,  under  all  sorts  of  conditions,  a  handicap 
framed  on  the  basis  in  point  of  distance  of  7  fur- 
longs and  166  yards  must  necessarily  be  incorrect 
relatively  in  regard  to  merit,  and  quite  useless  in 
the  sense  that  each  horse  has  been  given  a  fair 
chance.  In  handicaps  even  of  this  character  we 
occasionally  see,  as  a  matter  of  course,  hoises  per- 
haps weighted  at  almost  the  top  and  the  bottom 
coming  together  at  the  finish,  divided,  it  may  be,  by 
a  head  or  a  neck. 

When  this  happens — and  it  would  be  strange  in- 
deed if  it  did  not  happen  occasionally — we  are 
treated  on  all  sides  to  a  sort  of  rhapsody  of  praise 
and  exultation,  and  the  triumph  of  tlie  handicapper 
is  extolled  to  a  degree  almost  to  be  sickening.  Well 
merited  praise  is  naturally  approved  by  everybody 
disposed  to  be  generous,  but  when  one  knows  such 
a  result  to  be  little  less  than  a  chance  shot,  with 
jockeys  riding  in  Avaiting  at  each  otlier's  heels,  and 
not  venturing  to  make  a  race  of  it  in  many  cases 
till  only  the  last  few  strides,  one  cannot  help  think- 
ing much  of  the  enthusiasm  displayed  on  these 
occasions  might  with  advantage  be  just  a  trifle  re- 
si  rained,  or  at  any  rate  reserved  fur  something  more 
worthy  of  it. 


HANDICAPS.  75 

However,  looking  at  the  results  of  handicapping 
from  every  point  of  view,  especially  in  the  true 
interest  of  racing,  it  becomes  a  question  of  the 
greatest  importance  whether  it  would  not  be  better 
to  endeavor  to  discover  some  other,  and,  should  it 
be  possible,  a  far  better  method  of  determining 
the  weight,  under  all  circumstances,  horses  shall 
carry  to  bring  each  and  every  one  into  contest  on 
fair  terms.  In  my  humble  judgment,  we  should 
see  better  racing,  more  fair  play,  and  an  increased 
measure  of  sport,  if  handicaps  were  wholly  done 
away  with. 

I  believe  that,  on  the  principle  of  dividing  horses 
of  three  years  and  upward  into  classes,  and  appor- 
tioning the  weight  to  be  carried  in  all  races  eoav 
under  handicap  conditions  in  accordance  w^ith 
merit  would  work  out  w^ell.  Such  a  principle 
w^ould  be  devoid  of  all  imputation  of  unfairness,  and 
in  the  future  would  put  a  stop  to  such  exhibitions 
as  seen  last  autumn  in  the  Derby  Cup,  when  a 
horse  which  had  been  run  out  fairly  and  squarely 
on  his  merits  was  made  to  concede  an  animal  of  his 
own  age,  of  undoubted,  though  at  the  same  time 
unknown,  merit,  no  less  than  39  lbs.,  and  at  a 
period  of  the  year,  too,  that  favored  the  latter's 
sex. 

As  an  incident  in  the  supposed  "science"  of  han- 
dicapping, this,  unfortunately,  is  only  one  of  many 


76  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

similar  in  character  tliat  crop  up  g^eason  after  sea- 
son, until  it  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped  the  time  has 
arrived  when,  in  the  interest  of  sport,  it  will  cease 
to  be  tolerated.  I  make  not  the  remotest  sugges- 
tion of  wrong-doing  in  the  case  referred  to,  but 
nevertheless  the  idea  rather  extensively  prevails 
that,  under  the  present  handicap  system,  an  animal 
possessing  extraordinary  racing  capabilities  only 
needs  to  be  kept  in  reserve  long  enough  to  descend 
in  the  handicap  scale  until  the  minimum  impost  of 
*t)  St.  is  certain  to  be  reached. 

When  this  happens,  as  I  am  afraid  it  does  oftener 
than  Ave  think,  the  wrong  that  is  done  is  most 
serious  in  numerous  directions.  Perhaps,  however, 
the  worst  feature  of  all  is,  when  a  race  with  a  horse 
so  handicapped  comes  off,  tlie  scandal  it  creates, 
people  having  to  witness  every  means  being  re- 
sorted to  to  prevent  the  horse  in  question  squander- 
ing the  field  and  coming  in  alone. 

*St.  (stone)  is  equivalent  to  14  lbs. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Tlie  principle  of  fixing  or  determining  the  weight 
horses  shall  carry  in  races,  refined  by  the  term 
"handicap,"  is,  as  everybody  more  or  less  knows, 
founded  on  "estimate."  That  is  to  say,  the  best 
opinion  that  can  be  arrived  at  of  respective  merit 
derived  from  a  study  of  relative  form. 

How  that  opinion  shall  be  arrived  at,  must  neces- 
sarily be  open  to  question.  Not  in  one  direction 
only,  but  in  very  many.  What  may  be  a  horse's 
merit,  gauged  by  relative  running  with  other 
horses,  must  needs  depend  on  a  variety  of  circum- 
stances in  the  result  all  more  or  less  obscure. 

If  races  were  run  on  a  single  course  at  prescribed 
distances  and  on  the  level,  assuming  the  ground  not 
to  be  liable  to  climatic  change,  it  may  be  quite 


78  FLAT-RACinO    EXPLAINED. 

possible  to  handicap  a  given  number  of  horses  by 
computation  of  weight  on  equal  competitive  terms. 
But  to  make  this  apply  as  a  matter  of  principle, 
without  reservation,  to  all  horses,  would  be  futile 
in  the  extreme. 

As  I  have  pointed  out,  I  am  afraid  by  too  frequent 
repetition,  there  are  only  a  limited  number  of  horses 
liaving  racing  merit  not  confined  to  a  particular 
character  of  ground.  Thus,  when  it  has  to  be 
borne  in  mind  tliat  every  course  differ.^,  the  practi- 
cal assimilation  of  weight,  to  satisfy  all  conditions 
on  this  score  alone,  if  not  beyond  human  conception, 
must  needs  drift  into  that  sphere,  when  con  pled 
with  it  are  the  characteristics  and  adaptabilitlc  s  of 
horses  to  ground,  subject  to  climatic  variety  or 
change,  such  as  is  experienced. _^ 

Handicaps  by  the  method  employed  of  adjust- 
ing the  weiglit  horses  shall  carry  over  a  certain  dis- 
tance of  ground,  may  have  advantages  in  providing 
amusement  as  an  equine  spectacle.  When  put  for- 
ward, however,  to  be  regarded  as  a  sound  and  Y^- 
lial)le  test  of  the  merits  of  horses  on  a  basis  of  that 
which  is  equal,  and  upon  which  calculation  can 
foreshadow  results,  hardly  coincides  with  views  I 
should  care  to  indulge  in.  or  if  calhd  upon  express 
what  I  thought. 

When  people  enjoy  racing  for  racing's  salce,  it  is 


WtJtOBTS.  79 

because  it  enables  them  to  see  the  very  best  strains 
of  the  thoroughbred  the  worhl  can  produce,  broughl: 
into  contest  under  circumstances  Nature  intended. 

When  the  contest  is  upon  terms  that  are  equal, 
their  pleasure  is  enhanced;  when  it  is  unequal,  as 
in  handicaps,  where  the  weights  offer  no  sort  of 
guarantee  to  the  contrary  of  this,  they  can  only 
feel  that  the  conditions  have  changed,  and  as  a  re- 
sult hope  for  better  things  on  some  other  occasion. 

The  fact  is,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  racing  on 
equal  terras  on  the  basis  of  "estimate." 

Suppose  every  course  to  be  surveyed  and  the 
running  distances  reduced  by  ordinary  computation 
(to  which  I  have  referred  in  the  chapter  on  Courses), 
to  come  out  at  the  level,  and  the  stated  distances 
to  be  run  over  made  the  actual  distance  or  length 
of  course  at  the  level,  it  must  not  be  overlooked 
there  is  then  the  adaptability  of  every  horse  in  the 
entry  to  the  particular  gradient  to  be  adjusted,  for 
which  weight  in  no  sense  can  be  said  to  provide. 

There  are,  in  every  handicap  entry,  horses  of 
varied  running  characteristics,  such  as  I  endea- 
vored to  illustrate  in  the  respective  running  of  Best 
Man  and  Georgic,  that  no  course  and  no  weight 
would  bring  together  to  race  on  equal  terms,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  on  a  particular  character  cf 
ground  the  one  horse  would  win,  while  the  same 


80  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

would  apply  elsewhere  in  the  ease  of  the  other, 
with  little  or  no  chance  of  being  able  to  prevent  it. 

It  was  seen,  as  I  have  said,  in  the  Derby  Cup, 
how  a  difference  of  39  lbs.  between  two  horses  of 
the  same  age  was  made  to  afford  a  basis  of  "esti- 
mate," but  if  this  was  supposed  to  be  racing  on 
equal  terms,  and  to  satisfy  the  aims  of  racing  in  the 
sense  of  "legitimate  sport,"  I  thinli,  lilce  a  good 
many  others,  I  should  not  be  induced  to  travel  very 
far  to  witness  such  exhibitions. 

The  idea  which  has  always  prevailed  of  making 
the  conditions  in  racing  such  as  will  bring  the  "good 
and  the  bad"  horses  together,  however  acceptable  in 
theory,  is  subject,  nevertheless,  to  much  reserva- 
tion in  practice.  A  four-year-old  at  the  top  of  a 
handicap  and  a  five-year-old  at  the  bottom,  placed 
at  a  difference  of  about  3  st.  (42  lbs.),  if  it  does  not 
shock  one's  notion  of  fair  play,  rather  conveys  to 
one's  understanding  that  something  is  wrong. 

There  is  a  limit  within  which  a  handicapper 
must  range,  in  fixing  the  weights  at  the  top  and  the 
bottom,  but  so  far  as  age  is  concerned,  there  is  no 
limit,  or  indeed  anything  to  disallow  a  three-year- 
old  being:  placed  at  the  top,  and  an  aged  horse  at  the 
bottom,  should  their  respective  capabilities  appear 
to  sanction  it  on  the  basis  of  "estimate." 

One  cannot  help  thinking  tlie  "idea"  of  "good  and 


WEIGHTS.  SI 

bad"  hcrses  being  brought  together  needs  consid- 
erable modification.  Supposed  "bad  horses,"  and 
treated  as  such,  are  only  too  often  good  ones  in  dis 
guise.  That  which  allows  "good  and  bad"  horses 
to  be  brought  together  not  only  fosters  the  con- 
cealment of  merit,  but  is  a  direct  inducement  to 
wrong-doing,  especially  when  seemingly  it  outrages 
fair  play.  In  principle,  as  well  as  in  the  intert?.sts 
of  racing,  there  is  nothing  to  encourage,  or  even  to 
make  desirable,  the  fact  of  bad  horses  racing  with 
those  of  the  first  class,  on  any  terms  whatever. 

On  strict  lines,  the  idea  of  racing  should  be  to 
bring  into  contest,  into  entry  for  certain  races, 
horses  of  particular  class  and  suitability  for  the 
ground  upon  which  the  races  are  to  take  place. 

Whatever  the  prize  offered  may  be,  the  conditions 
should  make  the  chances  of  horses  more  a  matter 
of  scientific  investigation  and  study  by  those  in- 
terested in  them,  than  the  haphazard  character  rac- 
ing represents  on  the  model  prescribed  by  the  han- 
dicap system. 

So  far  as  "investigation  and  study"  have  hitherto 
gone  in  the  matter  of  handicap  racing,  I  think  any 
one  would  be  open  to  be  accused  of  very  bold 
assertion  if  he  was  prepared  to  say  these  were  not 
confined  to  the  work  of  the  handicapper  in  allotting 
the  weights.     As  an  instance  of  it,  I  have  known 


82  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

many  owners — and  trainers,  too — who,  in  tlie 
course  of  conversation,  would  have  at  their  fingers' 
ends  a  most  graphic  Ivuowledge  of  every  detail 
affording  a  "line"  to  the  compilation  of  a  handicap. 
I  have  known  them,  besides,  to  be  able  off-hand  to 
trace  out  in  a  most  masterly  manner  from  mem- 
ory voluminous  running  results,  coupled  with 
voluminous  particulars,  relating  to  handicaps  and 
their  supposed  peculiarities,  but,  strangely  enough, 
unable  to  offer  an  opinion,  by  way  of  explanation  or 
otherwise,  on  any  point  outside  what  the  weights, 
as  these  were  assigned,  may  or  may  not  have  done. 

I  must  say  in  the  face  of  this,  I  join  with  the 
many  in  thinking  that  the  best  interests  of  our 
great  national  pastime  demand  a  far  wider  and 
broader  field  of  inquiry,  into  the  merits  of  the  thor- 
oughbred, than  is  furnished  for  delectation  by  the 
work  of  the  handicapper. 

In  the  chapters  on  "Horses"  I  have  referred  to 
the  characteristics  and  peculiarities  of  horses, 
coupled  with  their  running  capabilities  on  the  level, 
and  on  gradients,  as  also  on  ground  subject  to 
climatic  changes. 

Though  my  statements  are  founded  on  actual  ex- 
perience and  very  attentive  observation,  it  will  be 
understood  I  do  not  arrogate  to  myself  the  acquisi- 


WEIGHTS.  83 

tion  of  other  than  general  information  touching  tlie 
subjects  referred  to. 

I  saj^  this,  liowever,  that  it  opens  up  matter  in 
the  interests  of  racing  of  very  serious  consequence, 
\Yhile  it  sliould  afford  facilities  for  scientific  in- 
quiry, the  advantages  of  which  should  not  be  over- 
looked by  race-horse  owners  or,  indeed,  any  one 
associated  with  the  thoroughbred  or  with  racing. 

If  what  I  have  said  is  accurate  and  well  founded, 
as  I  believe  it  to  be,  then  I  think  it  goes  a  long  way 
to  show  how  little  the  allotment  of  weight  in  han- 
dicaps has  had  to  do  in  the  long  run  with  races  of 
that  description. 

It  should  be  well  known  that  a  handicap  run  over 
different  courses  will  have  a  different  winner  and 
different  placed  horses  on  each  occasion,  and  this, 
of  itself,  should  have  caused  something  more  ef- 
fective than  weights  fixed  by  estimate  to  have  been 
long  since  substituted  for  it. 

The  principle  of  apportioning  weight  that  horses 
shall  carry  in  races  should  be  governed  in  certain 
cases  by  "scale,"  as  weight-for-age  races  are  so  gov- 
erned. There  is  this,  how^ever,  to  be  said: — Weight- 
for-age  races  are  races  irrespective  of  merit,  while 
races  arranged  on  the  basis  of  "weight-for-merit," 
are  races  irrespective  of  age. 


84  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

The  basis  of  weight  should  be  the  actual  and  not 
the  assumed  basis  of  merit.  For  instance,  it  is  ob- 
viously unjust  that  horses  of  four  years  and  up- 
ward having  no  records,  in  the  sense  that  their 
merits  may  have  been  concealed,  should  be  per- 
mitted to  race  with  three-year-olds  on  the  same 
terms.  In  such  cases  weight  governed  by  rule 
would  alone  be  a  corrective. 

I  cannot  but  think  the  scale  of  weight-for-age, 
devised  by  that  gallant  sportsman,  Admiral  Rous, 
and  since  1873  "modified  to  satisfy  practical  sug- 
gestions," yet  needs  careful  revision  in  respect  of 
two-year-olds  racing  with  older  horses  in  the  spring 
and  summer  months.  Tliere  is  little  room  for 
doubt  the  terms  as  set  are  by  far  too  mucii  in  favor 
of  the  older  horses. 

The  nursery  handicaps,  commencing  in  Septem- 
ber, that  we  have  been  familiar  Avith,  can  only  be 
said  in  point  of  merit  to  have  been  of  an  exceeding- 
ly doubtful  kind.  It  is  true  an  occasional  close 
finish  may  be  seen.  But  so  far  as  "close  finishes" 
are  concerned,  these  prove  little  beyond  the  fact 
that  horses  running  on  the  most  unequal  terms  now 
and  again  so  run,  and  will  continue  to  do  so,  and  be 
as  devoid  of  merit  as  over,  as  long  as  jockeys  ride 
"waiting"  races. 

Nursery  handicaps,  however,  compiled  with  all 


WEIGHTS.  85 

the  care  that  is  possible,  can  in  the  main  be  only 
guesswork,  and  nothing  further  need  be  said  con- 
cerning them. 

Any  disposition  of  weight  in  the  absence  of 
known  merit  must  necessarily  be  guesswork,  and 
for  my  part  I  cannot  but  regard  a  horse  let  into  a 
race  under  such  conditions  as  sufficient,  in  the 
spirit  of  fair  play,  to  render  it  void  on  that  ground. 

I  see  no  reason  why  weiglit,  assigned  by  **merit," 
should  not  be  governed  by  "scale,"  dividing  horses 
of  three  years  and  upward  into  classes.  The  prin- 
ciple should  be  to  make  each  horse  bear  his  right 
burden  in  accordance  with  age,  coupled  with  the 
class  his  merits  shall  have  determined. 

Horses  of  unknown  merit  when  running  in  races 
other  than  weight-for-age  races  should  be  expressly 
governed  by  "rule,"  as  I  have  said. 

In  arranging  the  weights  for  two-year-olds  there 
should  necessarily  be  different  treatment,  though 
the  principle  of  "merit"  must  needs  be  kept  in  view. 
To  my  mind  there  are  two  points  of  essential  im- 
portance in  this.  Not  only  should  two-year-old 
running  be  governed  by  merit,  but  it  should  also  be 
made  to  become  a  basis  for  three-year-old  racing  in 
the  following  season. 

One  great  advantage  of  the  principle  of  adjusting 
tbe  weights  for  horses  on  the  lines  to  which  I  have 


86  FLAT-RACING  EXPLAINED. 

only  cursorily  referred  is  that  it  would  be  gradual 
in  operation,  and  may  easily  be  made  to  work, 
as  it  weve,2)ari2Ki8su  with  methods  of  racing  very 
greatly  in  detail,  which  it  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped, 
in  the  interest  of  racing,  we  shall  see  ere  long  fast 
drifting  on  the  side  of  improvement. 


CHAriEK     X. 

COURSES. 

The  race-courses  we  have  in  England  are  gen- 
erally upheld,  and  are  believed  to  be  the  best  in  the 
world.  The  reason  for  this  is,  that  mostly  they 
are  laid  out  on  the  finest  old  turf,  are  well  drained, 
and  do  not  throw  up  an  abnormal  crop  of  herbage. 
The  majority  of  them  are  smooth  from  constant 
chain  harrowing  and  rolling,  and  reflect  great 
credit  to  those  intrusted  with  the  duties  of  man- 
agement. When  all  is  done,  however,  to  get  the 
various  courses  into  a  state  of  the  greatest  possi- 
ble perfection  for  racing  purposes,  there  are  no 
two  strictly  alike  anywhere,  or  the  running  of 
horses  upon  them  tells  a  very  untruthful  tale. 

Those  who  are  well  acquainted  with  the  several 
courses  referred  to  in  all  parts  of  the  Kingdom  are 
aware  that  in  formation  all  more  of  less  differ,  but 


88  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

it  is  to  be  doubted  if  any  amongst  these  good  peo- 
ple, even  the  clerks  of  courses  included,  could  give 
a  correct  definition  practically  of  any  one  of  them, 
of  vv^hat  it  consisted. 

In  the  absence  of  precise  information,  it  is  highly 
difficult  to  understand  the  ins  and  outs  and  the  gen- 
eral peculiarities  of  a  race-course,  and  yet  it  is  so 
important  a  matter  that  nobody  who  goes  racing 
should  \w  in  ignorance  of  it.  To  find  it  out  for  your- 
self is  an  event  l>oth  troublesome  and  not  a  little 
perplexing.  You  may  walk  over  the  ground,  you 
may  view  it  from  a  spot  here  and  a  spot  there,  you 
may  look  at  it  from  the  stand  and  the  stand  enclos- 
ure, you  may  ask  whom  you  will  for  information, 
but  it  all  ends  at  this:  the  actual  levels,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  ground  itself,  the  lengths  of  the  gradients, 
are  so  much  Greek  to  you,  that  so  far  as  getting  ad- 
vised upon  these  necessary  details,  you  must  needs 
give  it  up,  and  retire  very  little  wiser  than  when  you 
came. 

If  this  were  an  isolated  case  some  provision  might 
be  made  for  it,  but  it  happens  to  be  the  state  of 
things  a  person  must  be  prepared  to  encounter,  let 
him  select  any  race-meeting  he  may  choose  to  visit 
anywhere  in  the  kingdom.  For  some  reason  or  other 
a  survey  giving  details  of  courses  appears  never  to 
be  made,  or  if  this  should  be  made,  it  certainly  is 


I 


COURSES.  89 

uot  made  known  by  ordinary  publication.  The  curi- 
ous thing  about  it,  however,  is  that  upon  these 
courses  racing  goes  on  year  by  year,  and  although 
now  and  again  some  marvellously  contradictory  run- 
ning is  seen,  people  never  appear  to  inquire  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  conformation  of  the  ground  may 
have  contributed  to  it. 

Why  people  should  ostensibly  know  so  much 
about  horses,  and  know  little,  or  it  may  be  nothing, 
about  the  character  of  the  ground  upon  which  they 
gallop  in  a  race,  is  most  surprising;  yet,  for  all  that, 
I  should  think  the  time  cannot  be  so  far  distant  now 
when  this  branch  of  the  ethics  of  racing  will  be 
thought  to  merit  a  little  of  the  attention  it  certainly 
deserves. 

It  was  only  the  other  day  I  met  a  well-known 
clerk  of  the  course — a  man  recognized  everywhere 
as  a  thoroughly  practical  and  painstaking  offtcial — 
of  whom  I  inquired  whether  a  survey  had  been 
made  of  any  course  under  his  management,  and  it 
certainly  did  not  surprise  me  when  he  said  it  had 
not.  The  measurements  in  point  of  distance  had 
been  arrived  at,  he  said,  ''pretty  accurately,  al- 
though the  chain  had  not  been  run  over  them." 
"Our  races,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "are  always  stated 
to  be  'aibout'  the  distance  mentioned  in  the  condi- 
tions, and  that  is  near  enough  for  me,  and  I  am 
satisfied  with  it." 


90  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

"Don't  you  think,"  I  said,  "that  a  survey  should 
be  made,  and  the  details  of  measurements  set  out. 
showing  the  gradients  for  public  guidance?" 

"No,"  he  said;  "we  are  not  required  to  do  it,  and 
I  should  not  incur  that  trouble  and  expense  unless  a 
rule  were  passed  making  it  compulsory.  I  do  not, 
however,  see  that  it  is  wanted,  for  people  who  run 
horses  should  get  to  know  the  ups  and  downs  for 
themselves." 

"But,"  said  I,  "about  the  outsiders?" 

"Oh,  we  don't  need  to  trouble  about  them,  they 
are  able  to  look  after  themselves." 

This,  I  think,  pretty  clearly  shows  there  is  some- 
thing to  be  done,  at  least  by  clerks  of  courses,  to  put 
their  patrons  into  possession  of  information  every- 
body is  entitled  to  have.  To  say  that  it  is  not 
wanted  is  absurd,  for  it  partakes  of  that  which  is 
of  the  ABC  order  in  racing,  besides  which,  unless 
one  knows  what  he  is  pleased  to  call  the  **ups  and 
downs,"  what  chance  is  there  of  comparing  a  horse's 
running  elsewhere  with  what  he  is  likely  to  do 
when  he  comes  to  run  on  this  particular  ground? 

There  is  really  a  serious  question  involved  in  this 
matter  of  getting  to  Imow  the  various  gradients  of 
courses.  It  is  all  very  well  for  clerks  of  courses  to 
pooh-pooh  it,  and  desire  to  take  refuge  in  the  fact 
that  so  far  the  Jockey  Club  have  not  seen  fit  to 
make  it  compulsory.    They  should  remember^  tfow- 


COURSEI^.  91 

ever,  the  public  are  not  so  blind,  anel  so  unintelli- 
gent, as  not  to  know  tliat  persons  having  the  man- 
agement of  race  meetings  are  naturally  desirous  of 
providing  spectacle,  as  obviously  nothing  pays  like 
spectacular  effect.  In  a  word,  nobodj  expects 
them  to  be  oblivious  to  the  gleams  of  sunshine  on 
their  prosperity  and  progress  created  by  the  pres- 
ence of  moneyed  people,  and  so  to  speak  the  gather- 
ing of  the  clans  that  money  begets,  for  that  would 
not  be  human  nature. 

But,  labor  as  much  as  they  will  in  the  cause  of 
outward  show,  even  clerks  of  courses  cannot  afford 
to  allow  the  working  of  the  great  racing  machine 
to  be  left  as  a  duty  for  humbler  mortals  to  fulfil. 
It  is  clearly  their  duty  to  make  known,  by  giving 
published  details,  of  what  their  courses  consist. 
Let  them  set  out  fully  and  distinctly  everything  the 
public  have  a  right  to  know  about  the  "ups  and 
downs."  Every  gradient  in  every  course  should  be 
shown,  and  the  actual  measurements  so  set  out  that 
no  difficulty  would  be  experienced  in  ascertaining 
Ihe  level,  and  the  distances  at  the  level^  between 
starting  and  winning  posts. 

Surface  measurements,  except  on  a  strictly  level 
course,  not  being  actual  running  distances,  every 
stated  distance  for  which  a  race  is  to  be  run,  it  is 
jinperative,  should  be  given  as  measured  at  the 
J^vel.    I  have  said  "imperative,"  because  not  only 


92  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

are  handicaps  framed  on  the  basis  of  a  level  course, 
but  amongst  the  hidden  secrets  of  racing,  in  a  largo 
measure,  there  lies  and  underlies,  it  should  always 
be  remembered,  the  question  of  "gradient." 

Clerks  of  courses  will  be  well  advised  never  to 
roll  down  long  grass  on  their  courses,  as  when  it 
happens  that  horses  are  made  to  race  against  the 
edges  of  the  grass  rolled  from  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, their  chances  of  success  are  reduced  to  almost 
nil.  In  cases  where  long  grass  must  of  necessity 
be  rolled  late  in  the  season,  as  on  Newmarket 
Heath,  it  must  only  be  done  so  that  the  grass  shall 
lie  in  the  direction  the  horses  galloj),  or  the  racing 
will  be  altogether  incorrect,  if  not  positively  unfair. 

I  have  seen  jockeys  over  and  over  again  disre- 
gard this,  with  the  result,  by  the  use  of  the  watch, 
there  has  been  a  difference  in  a  horse's  running, 
over  the  same  ground,  amounting  to  as  much  as 
three  or  four  lengths,  and  I  have  known  it,  even  in 
a  Avell-contested  race,  to  amount  to  something  like 
twenty  lengths,  the  speed  being  in  the  latter  case 
extremely  bad. 

It  must  not  be  taken  that  rolled  grass  is  alone  to 
be  met  with  on  Newmarket  Heath.  I  have  seen  it 
at  plenty  of  other  places,  but  at  none  where  the 
work  was  so  well  done,  or  with  anything  approach- 
ing the  care,  to  ensure  racing  sliall  not  be  interfered 


COURSES. 


93 


with  by  it.  The  courses  on  NeAvmarket  Heath  are 
iu  every  respect  most  admirably  cared  for,  and  I  do 
not  think  it  would  be  iwssible  to  have  them,  under 
all  conditions,  in  better  trim,  I  may  say,  at  every 
meeting  held  on  the  classic  Heath  throughout  the 
racing  season. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TIME. 

One  of  the  most  important  stndies  connected  with 
racing  is  that  commonly  called  the  "time  test," 
but  there  are  few,  I  am  afraid,  who  know  any- 
thing about  it.  Some  are  to  be  found,  it  is  true, 
who  have  tried  it,  but  their  knowledge,  so  far  as 
I  have  seen,  is  only  superficial,  and  they  are  gen- 
erally hopelessly  at  sea  on  the  subject.  It  is,  in 
all  its  aspects,  a  dithcult  study,  and  I  do  not  pre- 
tend to  have  mastered  it  wholly  in  all  its  some- 
what complex  details.  I  can  say  this,  however, 
that  I  have  given  myself  the  chance  of  doing  so, 
for  I  have  studied  it  for  many  years,  and  possess 
the  records  of  races  I  have  timed  on  almost  every 
course  in  England,  to  number  in  the  aggregate 
something  approaching  4,000. 

In  my  time  I  liave  seen  a  good  deal  of  racing  and 
racing  methods,  not  the  least  interesting  of  which 


TIME.  95 

has  been  the  use  of  the  watch  whenever  practica- 
ble. That  that  little  instrument  is,  under  certain 
coiulitious,  a  reliable  tell-tale,  there  can  be  no  man- 
ner of  question,  the  only  wonder  to  me  being  that 
it  is  not  generally  used.  There  is  this,  however, 
to  be  said  about  it,  that  to  acquire  the  art  of  timing 
races  is  like  acquiring  the  art  of  performing  on  a 
musical  instrument,  and  cannot  be  done  without 
practice,  patience,  and  much  observation. 

When  I  speak  of  "observation,"  it  is  difficult  to 
say  the  extent  to  which,  of  necessity,  it  must  go. 
There  must  be  no  obstructive  wind,  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  blowing  too  freely  with  the  horses, 
when  running,  if  great  accuracy  is  required.  The 
state  of  the  ground  is  all-important.  If  it  should 
not  be  firm,  the  speed  will  be  unreliable;  if  it  is 
wet,  and  the  foot  of  the  horse  sinks  in,  except  as 
a  criterion  of  what  horses  can  do  under  such  con- 
ditions, time  has  no  further  value  in  this  instance. 

In  a  wet  season  the  case  is  very  much  altered, 
for  then  you  time  under  wet  conditions,  so  to 
speak,  and  certain  horses  will  be  found  to  be  as 
accurate  in  mud  as  other  horses  are  alone  accurate 
when  the  ground  is  quite  dry.  Thus,  in  timing 
races  it  is  as  necessary  to  have  your  list  of  horses 
for  ivet-ground  racing  as  it  is  to  have  those  care- 
fully ticked  off  that  are  for  dry-ground  racing,  the 


90  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

latter  of  which,  by  the  way,  being  of  no  good 
whatever  when  it  is  not  in  that  state.  Then  you 
must  carefully  observe  what  is  going  on  in  the 
course  of  the  race. 

Some  horses  you  will  see  to  be  "racing,"  while 
others  are  not,  and  the  latter  category  you  will 
discover  to  amount  to  an  average  of  about  05  per 
cent,  or  thirteen  out  of  every  twenty,  conoerning 
the  running  of  which  no  question  of  time  need  be 
entertained.  The  "racing  horses"  are  those  to  be 
kept  in  view,  and  it  is  marvellous  the  accuracy 
with  which  horses  perform  under  conditions  to 
which  I  shall  presently  refer. 

When  you  have  parcelled  off  your  "wet-ground" 
and  your  "dry-ground"  horses,  you  then  have  to 
deal  with  those  taken  from  these  lists  having 
speed  either  for  the  level  only  or  the  incline  only; 
and  now  and  again  you  will  come  across  an  ani- 
mal having  no  speed  whatever  on  either  of  these 
kind  of  courses,  no  matter  what  the  state  of  the 
ground  might  be,  but  with  terrific  speed  downhill, 
stopping  to  nothing  directly  the  end  of  it  is 
reached,  though  it  lands  him  apparently  on  the 
level. 

The  only  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  some- 
what wonderful  information  derived  from  a 
watch,  when  correctly  used,  is  that  in  the  physical 
construction  of  horses,  when  at  the  gallop,  there 


TIME.  97 

must  be  an  angle  at  which  the  ground  is  struck  by 
the  feet,  at  present  unknown  to  us.  It  is  quite 
certain  all  horses  do  not  strike  the  ground  in  anj^ 
degree  to  be  relative,  or  speed  would  certainly  be 
more  uniform.  Speed,  however,  differs  to  the  ex- 
tent that  on  some  gradients  horses  are  fast,  while 
their  relative  speed  on  others  is,  for  some  un- 
known reason,  comparatively  slow.  Of  course  it 
will  be  understood  I  refer  to  sound  horses,  those 
that  can  be  depended  upon  to  give  their  natural 
rate  of  speed,  whatever  it  may  be,  on  all  gradients, 
as  also  on  the  level. 

As  I  have  said  before,  horses  are  predisposed  to 
repeat  their  performance  on  the  same  ground  with 
little  variation  time  after  time,  and,  upsetting  as 
it  will  be  to  handicap  notions,  the  weight  they  may 
have  on  their  backs  is  not,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, of  very  material  consequence.  Persons  have 
seen  dead-beats,  when  run  off,  again  repeated,  and 
close  shaves  of  short  heads,  and  heads  and  neck^ 
in  matches  times  out  of  number.  Of  these  I  have 
seen  many. 

But  more  striking  still  is  the  fact  that  horses 
will  come  after  a  longish  interval  of  months,  or  it 
may  be  a  year  or  more,  and  over  the  same  ground 
there  will  scarcely  be  a  pin  to  choose  between  the 
performances.     A    direct    illustration    of    this    oc- 


98  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

ciirred  on  the  Manchester  course  several  years  ago, 
which,  I  am  bound  to  say,  at  the  time  greatly  im- 
pressed me.  This  was  in  the  years  1891  and  1893, 
in  the  Salford  Borough  Handicap,  distance  one 
mile,  when  both  these  races  were  won  by  that  ex- 
ceedingly useful  horse,  Workington,  the  property 
of  that  good  all-round  and  popular  sportsman,  the 
Right  Hon.  James  Lowther,  M.  1\ 

Manchester — or  perhaps  I  should  say  New  Barns 
— Race-course  is  to  all  appearances  perfectly  flat. 
I  have  seen  it  from  the  stand  and  enclosures  many 
times,  but  I  have  never  been  over  it.  I  had  the 
temerity  on  one  occasion  to  ask  permission  of  the 
executive  to  do  so,  and  in  my  weakness,  as  a  last 
resource  in  my  endeavor  to  accomplish  that  desired 
end,  I  stated,  in  the  interest  of  my  readers,  the  pur- 
pose I  had,  when  my  request  was  refused — and  not 
in  very  polite  terms  either,  I  thought. 

However,  I  have  seen  some  good  horses  run 
there,  and  when  the  ground  is  drj'^  some  good  rac- 
ing, but  it  very  seldom  is  dry.  It  was  dry,  however, 
when  Workington  beat  good  fields  on  both  occa- 
sions; but  the  most  remarkable  thing  was  tliat,  not- 
withstanding the  long  interval,  and  he  was  then 
an  aged  horse,  he  ran  the  course  in  1893  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  time  he  had  done  so  two  years 
previously.  The  time  was  1  minute  42  4-.5  seconds, 
or,  for  purposes  of  comparison,  2  2-5  seconds  slower 


TIME.  99 

than  Georgic  did  the  same  distance  in  the  Prince 
Edward  Handicap  last  September.  In  point  of  dis- 
tance, this  would  be  eight  lengths  as  nearly  as  pes 

sible. 

Of  course,  upon  this  there  is  the  question  of 
weights,  to  which  race-goers  in  general  attach  so 
very  much  importance.  Workington  carried  on  the 
first  occasion  7  st.  9  lb.,  and  on  the  second  7  st.  12 
lb.,  being  a  difference  of  3  lb.  only.  Georgic  car- 
ried 7  St.  4  lb.,  or,  say,  7  lb.  in  favor  of  the  latter 
mare.  That  this  made  any  difference,  or  would 
have  made  any  difference,  supposing  Georgic  had 
carried  7  st.  12  lb.,  I  cannot  suggest  as  likely  for  a 
moment. 

It  is  an  incontestable  fact,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  and  contrary  as  it  may  be  to  the  prevailing 
idea,  that,  with  few  exceptions,  all  horses  run  their 
fastest  races,  under  the  watch,  when  they  carry  the 
heaviest  weight.  A  notable  instance  of  it  was  in 
tlie  case  of  Amphion,  a  splendid  miler  and  a  first- 
class  horse  into  the  bargain,  when  in  training  some 
few  years  ago.  The  fastest  race  he  ran  during  his 
career  was  when  he  had  10  st.  3  lb.  on  his  back. 

Best  Man  was  another  horse  that  ran  under  tlie 
same  conditions.  Why  he  should  have  been  set 
down  as  of  the  ]Melton  tribe  I  never  could  make  out, 
for  every  characteristic  the  horse  possessed,  from 
his  head  to  his  heels,  was  that  of  Ormonde.     Again, 


100  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

to  see  him  in  full  swing,  the  way  he  carried  his  head 
and  used  those  powerful  propellers  of  his  was  un- 
doubtedly Ormonde. 

I  know  in  thus  writing  I  somewhat  fly  in  the 
face  of  "authoritative  opinion,"  but  in  cases  of 
doubted  parentage,  if  it  is  to  be  held  one  must 
accept  the  offspring  as  due  to  the  last  service,  then 
the  retention  of  the  name  of  the  sire  first  used  is 
little  less  than  a  farce.  In  these  cases,  however,  of 
doubt,  and  where  there  is  a  choice  of  sires,  I  prefer 
to  follow  the  evidence  of  one's  eyes,  and  to  be 
guided  in  one's  judgment  by  characteristics  of  sire 
as  unmistakable  as  they  appeared  in  Best  Man  as 
I  saw  him  during  his  racing  career. 

In  the  matter  of  speed,  on  mile  courses  and  on 
gradients  the  same  in  character,  Best  Man  followed 
Ormonde  very  closely.  On  the  level,  however,  the 
former  horse  was  by  no  means  gifted  with  high 
speed,  nor,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  Ormonde  either. 
Both  w^ere  race  horses  of  bull-dog  courage  and  reso- 
lution, and  could  always  be  depended  upon  to  fight 
tlieir  races  out  to  the  bitter  end.  Tlie  peculiarity 
of  Best  Man's  running,  as  he  increased  in  years, 
was  that  he  ran  nearly  all  courses  at  the  same  rate 
of  speed,  and  when  he  won  the  Old  Cambridgeshire 
up  the  Criterion  Hill,  he  went  just  as  fast  as  he 
was  able  to  go  on  the  flat. 


TIME.  101 

I  have  oftrii  wondered,  assiiiniii^  Kest  Mnii  and 
Florizel  II. — a  sterling  good  horse  on  a  level  course, 
and  gifted,  too,  with  a  high  rate  of  speed — co^uld 
have  been  matched  on  perfectly  even  terms,  what 
course  in  the  country  could  have  been  found  that 
would  have  been  fair  to  both  horses,  in  the  sense 
that  each  would  have  displayed  his  best  qualities. 
No  two  horses  could  have  been  more  dissimilar  in 
every  racing  particular,  yet  on  their  own  ground 
both  brilliant  performers. 

A  good  many  people  I  am  sure  would  say  the 
Rowley  Mile,  while  others  would  jump  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Across  the  Flat  would  satisfy  all  re- 
quirements. Here  are  two  courses,  perhaps  at  the 
respective  distances  not  to  be  surpassed  by  any  in 
this  country,  or  in  any  other  if  it  comes  to  that,  and 
yet  neither  Best  Man  nor  Florizel  II.  showed  any- 
thing like  high-class  racing  merit  on  them,  and  in 
the  matter  of  speed,  it  never  approached  what  both 
horses  shoAved  over  and  over  again  elsewhere 
where  better  suited. 

I  have  not  forgotten  Best  Man  ran  second  to 
Marco  in  the  Cambridgeshire  over  this  very  ground, 
but  at  its  best  it  was  only  a  poorish  performance, 
and  in  point  of  speed  did  not  come  up  to  what  he  did 
two  days  later  over  a  far  more  trying  course,  name- 
Iv,  the  Old  Cambridgeshire,  to  which  I  have  re- 


102  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

ferred,  by,  in  point  of  distance,  nearly  a  lengtli  and 
a  half. 

I  have  said  horses  do  not  strike  the  ground  in  any 
degree  to  be  relative,  and  I  am  hoping  as  time  goes 
on  opportunity  will  be  given  for  fuller  investigation. 
Best  Man,  it  is  true,  ran  all  courses  pretty  much  at 
the  same  rate  of  speed,  a  circumstance  or  a  peculi- 
arity I  have  never  found  to  have  existed  in  any 
other  horse. 

The  general  experience  I  have  had  of  horses  run- 
ning is  that,  on  a  particular  character  of  ground, 
they  have  what  is  called  a  "set  speed."  I  have, 
however,  always  found  that  with  a  change  in  the 
conformation  of  the  ground  there  is  always,  or  very 
nearly  always,  a  change  in  the  rate  of  speed, 
though  the  variation  in  the  ground  itself  is  scarcely 
perceptible. 


CHAPTER     XII. 

TIME  {continued.) 

I  cannot,  in  the  present  work,  enter  upon  the 
subject  of  defining  distance  by  time,  when  it  comes 
to  a  question  of  showing  the  relative  running  of 
horses  which  have  finished  within  measurable  dis- 
tance behind  the  actual  winner.  For  instance,  sup- 
posing a  horse  to  have  run,  say,  second,  third, 
fourth,  or  even  fifth,  in  a  well  contested  race,  it 
nmst  not  be  imagined  that  the  time  cannot  be  as 
accurately  taken  as  though  he  finished  first.  On 
tlie  contrary,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  this,  and  I 
have  found  the  time  thus  taken  to  be  in  every 
respect  as  correct  as  though  it  referred  to  the  win- 
ner only.  In  stating,  therefore,  that  Best  Man's 
performance  in  the  Old  Cambridgeshire,  which  he 
won,  was  faster  by  a  length  and  a  half  than  when 
he  ran  second,  behind  Marco,  on  the  New  Cam- 


104  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

bridgeshire  course,  it  is  in  accordance  with  tlie  time 
taken  as  I  have  just  mentioned. 

In  view  of  this,  and  as  a  matter  that  may  be  of 
interest  to  my  readers,  I  deal  with  the  running  of 
Georgic  at  Manchester,  in  the  Cambridgeshire,  and 
also  in  the  Old  Cambridgeshire  last  autumn,  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  of  what  it  consisted  relatively, 
and  to  enable  a  comparison  to  be  made  with  the 
running  of  Best  Man  in  the  two  latter  events  to 
which  I  have  referred. 

In  the  Prince  Edward  Handicap  at  Manchester, 
Georgic  carried  7  st.  4  lb.,  and  covered  the  distance, 
1  mile,  in  1  minute  40  2-5  seconds,  or  the  same  time 
as  Clwyd,  carrying  7  st.  12  lb.,  in  1895. 

In  the  Cambridgeshire  she  carried  7  st.  8  lb.,  dis- 
tance 1  mile  240  yards,  in  1  minute  and  55  2-5  sec- 
onds. In  the  Old  Cambridgeshire,  in  which  she  ran 
second,  she  carried  7  st.  12  lb.,  and  covered  the  dis- 
tance in  2  minutes  2  1-5  seconds — that  is  to  say,  2  1-5 
seconds  behind  the  winner.  Best  Man  ran  second 
for  the  Cambridgeshire  in  1  minute  58  3-5  seconds, 
and  won  the  Old  Cambridgeshire  in  1  minute  58 
seconds. 

By  this  it  will  be  seen  that,  on  the  New  Cam- 
bridgeshire course,  Georgic  beat  Best  Man's  time 
by  4  seconds,  while  on  the  Old  course  things  were 
reversed  to  the  etxent  that  Best  Man  beat  Georgic's 


TIME.  105 

time  by  4  secouds.  Now,  if  the  4  soconds  arc  com- 
puted to  represent  ten  lengths  in  each  case,  there 
is  yet  the  question  of  the  4  lb,  difference  in  weight 
in  favor  of  Best  Man's  time  in  the  Okl  Cambridge- 
shire, and  upon  this  hypothesis,  assuming  these 
two  animals  were  about  to  be  handicapped  for  a 
third  race  to  be  brought  off  at  precisely  the  same 
distance  on  a  level  course,  I  ask  what  possible 
weights  could  be  assigned  to  give  each  a  fair 
chance?  At  what  conceivable  weights,  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  handicapping  according  to  recognized  rules, 
could  Best  Man  be  made  to  beat  Georgic  on  a  level 
course,  and,  vice  versa,  Georgic  to  beat  Best  Man 
on  a  course  having  a  steep  incline? 

Problematical  as  this  may  appear,  it  is  worthy, 
in  the  interest  of  racing,  of  the  highest  considera- 
tion. Of  course,  it  is  understood  I  have  introduced 
the  running  of  Best  Man  (the  horse  being  a  reliable 
public  performer)  in  order  to  show  of  what  relative 
form  consists,  on  ground  so  well  known  as  are  the 
two  Cambridgeshire  courses  to  every  race-goer. 

The  puzzle,  if  there  is  a  puzzle  in  it,  is  the  run- 
ning of  Georgic  in  the  Old  Cambridgeshire.  Rela- 
tively gauged,  as  I  have  shown,  there  was  a  differ- 
ence of  8  seconds  between  her  form  here  and  that 
which  took  place  in  the  Cambridgeshire  two  days 
previously.     Much  less  than  8  seconds  would  have 


106  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

won  the  race,  and  easily,  too.  Without  going  mi- 
nutely into  distances,  the  speed  of  the  mare  is  so 
great,  that  on  the  other  course  it  would  have  been, 
if  one  may  be  permitted  to  imagine  such  a  thing, 
like  Best  Man,  viewing  her  passing  the  winning 
post  from  the  Bushes  Hill,  not  being  able  to  get 
nearer  to  her  than  that.  In  any  case,  it  proves 
Georgic  to  be  an  animal  of  great  merit  on  a  flat 
course,  but  not  to  be  of  much  account  where  there 
is  a  stiff  gradient. 

If  it  were  necessary,  instances  su<2h  as  I  have 
mentioned  of  horses  running  their  fastest  races 
with  the  heaviest  weight  up  could  be  given  to  a 
very  large  extent;  but  there  is  perhaps  just  this  to 
be  said — horses  with  welter-weights  on  their  backs 
are  differently  ridden,  and  opportunities  less  fre- 
quently thrown  away  of  getting  to  the  winning  post 
as  soon  as  possible  when  fairly  on  their  way. 
When  this  is  done,  there  is  of  course  better  speed 
made,  though,  generally  speaking,  the  method  of 
riding  in  this  country  is  not  in  furtherance  of  that 
desirable  end. 

Take,  as  an  example,  the  performance  of  Rodo- 
mont,  a  horse  still  in  training,  but  one  nobody 
would  be  willing  to  regard  at  any  time  during  his 
career  as  a  high-class  race  horse.  In  his  best  days 
he  won,  as  the  book  tells,  several  good  races,  as 


TIME.  107 

many  horses  before  him  have  done,  without  gaining 
more  than  passing  notice,  and  certainly  without 
the  least  semblance,  in  point  of  merit,  of  having 
acquired  fame.  This  is  just  Rodomont's  fate;  yet 
if  people  are  told  that  he  established  a  name  for 
himself,  in  having  run,  perhaps,  the  fastest  race  on 
record  over  the  Cambridgeshire  Course,  few  will 
be  disposed  to  look  upon  it  as  otherwise  than  in- 
credible. 

The  race  in  question  was  the  Newmarket  Handi- 
cap, run  at  the  Second  Spring  Meeting,  in  May, 
1895.  Rodomont  carried  8  st.  6  lb.,  and  covered 
the  distance,  1  mile  240  yards,  in  1  minute  55  sec- 
onds, or  2-5  of  a  second  faster  than  Georgic  ran  the 
Cambridgeshire,  over  the  same  ground,  last  season. 
The  2-5  of  the  second  may  fairly  be  put  at  3-4  of  a 
length. 

There  was  a  great  deal  to  be  learned  by  the  run- 
ning of  this  horse,  and  also  by  the  result  of  the 
race.  Nothing  need  be  said  of  the  riding,  for  the 
horse  set  the  pace  himself,  and  came  right  througli, 
overpowering  the  jockey  from  start  to  finish.  I 
did  not  see  any  second  horse  in  it,  and  my  surprise 
was  great  when  one  was  given  as  three  lengths 
away  from  the  winner.  From  thence  on  I  could 
but  keep  in  view  the  career  of  an  animal  that  had 
told  as  plainly  as  w^ords  could  express  of  what  its 
capabilities  consisted,  both  in  point  of  distance        I 


108  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

gradient.  He  ran  several  times  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  season,  and  afterwards  won  on  two 
occasions;  but  the  speed  was  poor,  and  it  was  clear 
the  horse  was  out  of  his  distance,  was  badly  placed 
in  point  of  gradient,  and  altogether  unsuited  to  the 
task  he  was  set  to  perform. 

The  point,  however,  to  be  observed  in  Rodomont's 
case  is  that  which  undoubtedly  would  be  applicable 
in  the  ease  of  a  large  number  of  horses.  If  it  had 
been  possible  to  have  run  him  half  a  dozen  times 
over  the  same  ground,  following  the  performance 
in  the  Newmarket  Handicap,  he  would  not  only 
have  repeated  his  time,  probably,  on  each  occasion, 
but  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have  found  an 
animal  to  beat  him  at  racing  weights. 

To  enumerate  the  horses  that  have  repeated  their 
time  over  the  same  ground  within  my  experience, 
regardless  of  the  difference  in  weights,  were  I  to 
enter  upon  the  task,  would  fill  a  volume.  A  notable 
instance,  in  point  of  repeating  the  time,  was  La 
Fleche,  in  the  Derby  and  the  Oaks,  the  two  worst 
races,  perhaps,  the  filly  ran  as  a  three-year-old. 
The  time  in  both  these  races  was  exactly  the  same, 
though  she  only  ran  second  in  the  former  race. 
The  ground  was  then  very  hard,  and  the  filly 
looked  dull  and  out  of  sorts. 

La  Fleche's   finest  performance,   certainly   that 


TIME.  109 

year,  if  not  during  her  career,  was  in  the  Cam- 
bridgeshire, following  her  St.  Leger  triumph,  when, 
with  8  St.  10  lb.  on  her  three-year-old  back,  she  won 
with  tlie  greatest  ease,  in  the  marvellous  time  of 
2  minutes  1  2-5  seconds.  The  race  was  run  in  the 
deepest  ground  known  at  Newmarket  in  the  month 
of  October  for  a  generation,  and  I  remember  never 
to  have  seen  anything  like  it,  certainly  at  New- 
market. The  manner  La  Fleclie  squandered  her 
field  I  shall  never  forget,  simply  leaving  her  twen- 
ty nine  opponents  sprawling  in  the  mud. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

TIME  {continued.) 

As  there  are  no  two  courses  exactly  alike  any- 
where in  this  country,  I  do  not  suggest  that  the 
relative  running  of  horses  upon  them  can  be  demon- 
strated with  positive  accuracy.  It  happens,  how- 
ever, that  the  running  on  the  ground  of  the  Rowley 
Mile  at  Newmarket  and  at  Kempton  show  results 
somewhat  similar. 

A  performance  on  both  these  well  known  and 
popular  battle  grounds  should  be  mentioned  in  St. 
Frusquin,  a  most  reliable  runner,  and  perhaps  as 
game  a  horse  as  was  ever  saddled.  I  had  St.  Frus- 
quin under  the  watch  a  good  many  times,  with  sat- 
isfactory results,  bar  his  race  at  Kempton,  wlien 
he  was  placed  second  to  Teufel.  How  that  came 
about  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  I  can  only  state 
the  facts,  and  at  the  same  time  add  that  I  have 
looked  upon  that  result  as  the  most  disastrous  of 


TIME.  Ill 

any  that  has  occurred  during  my  acquaintance  with 
the   turf. 

8t.  Frusquin  had  been  over  the  same  ground  be- 
fore, and  I  had  his  measure  in  a  way  that  I  could 
not  be  deceived  by  the  running  or  mistaken  in  point 
of  correctness  of  observation.  I  remember  the  race 
quite  w^ell.  The  state  of  the  elements  and  the 
ground  were  all  that  could  be  desired.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  weight,  although  the  colt  had  won  three  races 
I'iglit  off  the  reel,  of  the  value  collectively  of  G,000 
pounds,  he  was  only  placed  here  at  a  disadvantage 
of  5  lb.,  against  such  animals  as  Barn  Dance  and 
Kalm  of  Gilead,  while  Teufel  was  in  receipt  of 
12  lb. 

The  start  was  a  good  one.  St.  Frusquin,  jump- 
ing into  his  stride,  was  well  away  in  the  front  rank. 
All  I  through  the  race,  however,  the  speed  was 
wretchedly  slow,  and  there  was  nothing  in  point  of 
interest  to  redeem  the  event  from  that  so  often  seen 
described  in  print  as  a  "common  affair."  With 
this  description  I  take  the  opportunity  of  saying  I 
do  not  agree,  for  to  see  horses — well-trained  horses 
— galloping,  when  racing  or  not  racing,  is  at  all 
times  a  delightful  spectacle,  and  I  know  in  this 
respect  I  have  a  large  majority  of  my  countrymen 
— ay,  and  countrywomen  too — on  my  side. 

However,  the  race  in  question  took  a  period  of 
1  minute  and  10  seconds,  on  a  perfectly  flat  course; 


112  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

and  therefore,  in  only  getting  second,  half  a  length 
behind  Teufel,  St.  Frusquin  ran  the  very  worst  race 
of  his  life  as  a  race  horse.  The  extraordinary  part 
of  the  business  was  that  when  Teiifel  passed  the 
winning-post  a  winner,  St.  Frusquin  should  have 
been,  on  his  merits,  just  twelve  and  a  half  lengths 
in  front,  then  to  have  eased  up,  and  practically  on 
his  way  to  weigh  in. 

My  readers  will  remember  that  on  that  same  day 
in  the  following  week  St.  Frusquin  won  the  Middle 
Park  Plate  at  Newmarket,  and  what  he  should 
have  done,  and  more  than  done  at  Kempton,  he 
accomplished  at  the  former  place,  thus  proving  to 
demonstration  there  was  no  justification  from  any 
point  of  view  for  what  had  happened  at  Kempton, 
as  I  have  said. 

To  have  been  deprived  of  a  stake  worth  £4,000 
was  bad  enough  in  all  conscience  for  an  owner 
under  the  circumstances,  but  those  having  more 
reason  to  complain,  perhaps,  were  people  asso- 
ciated with  the  great  army  of  racing  investors, 
whose  admiration  of  a  reputed  good  one  never  stops 
short  of  the  employment  of  pen  and  pencil,  in  the 
cause  which  brings  bookmakers  and  backers  into 
what  is  called  "healthful  contest."  That  Teufel 
should  have  become  the  hope  of  the  future,  from 
a  speculative  point  of  view,  with  a  multitude  of 
people,  in  a  sense,  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for 


TIME.  113 

althoujrli  the  event  to  which  I  refer  occurred  iu 
1895,  }'et  I  do  not  think,  down  to  the  present,  our 
friends  the  sporting  writers  have  ever  failed  to 
extol  the  fame  of  Teufel  consequent  upon  the 
horse's  supposed  great  achievement  in  lowering  the 
colors  of  St.  Frusquin. 

AVhat  this  will  have  cost  the  racing  public 
through  these  series  of  years,  down  to  last  autumn, 
when  Teufel  was  deemed  by  many  as  ''the  good 
thing''  for  the  Cambridgeshire,  and  backed  with  the 
pertinacity  racing  enthusiasts  are  so  much  given  to, 
goodness  only  knows.  For  my  part,  I  have  dreaded 
to  see  the  name  of  Teufel  in  events  again  and  again, 
when  speed  above  all  was  the  desideratum,  know- 
ing full  well  that,  so  long  as  the  horse  remained  in 
training,  the  racing  public  would  continue  to  regard 
him  as  a  sort  of  idol,  and  be  guided  by  its  super- 
stition. Had  they  reflected,  however,  that  as  a 
two-year-old  in  the  month  of  October  he  was  only 
able  to  cover  six  furlongs  in  1  minute  19  seconds 
on  a  flat  course,  their  enthusiasm  should  have 
cooled  down,  when  it  made  him  out  to  be  only  a 
bad  horse. 

Why  sporting  writers  should,  as  a  body,  take  no 
heed  of  the  time  in  which  a  race  is  run  is  very 
singular.  It  matters  not  what  may  be  the  value  of 
the  stake  or  the  gigantic  interests  involved;  they 
either  hold  aloof  altogether,  or  perhaps  one  amongst 


114  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED. 

their  number,  in  a  half-hearted  sort  of  way,  gives  a 
casual  notice  of  the  time  in  which  a  certain  race  is 
run. 

To  my  thinking  this  is  very  much  to  be  regretted, 
but  I  imagine  it  will  not  be  long  now  before  the 
public  will  ask,  if  they  do  not  insist,  that  all  races 
shall  be  olficially  timed,  and  the  results  duly  pub- 
lished in  "The  Racing  Calendar."  It  will  be  under- 
stood that,  in  pointing  this  omission  out,  I  do  not 
make  any  complaint  against  sporting  writers,  to 
whom  the  public  in  general,  and  race-goers  in  par- 
ticular, owe  so  much. 

Tlie  labors  these  gentlemen  perform  in  the  course 
of  their  duties,  it  is  well  known,  are  prodigious, 
while  the  amount  of  energy  and  ability  they  bring 
into  the  task  cannot  be  too  widely  recognized  as  de- 
serving unanimous  approbation. 

By  the  aid  of  the  Avatch,  how  many  horses  can  be 
roughed  out  of  a  race  as  having  no  place  in  one's 
estimation  for  a  particular  event!  Again,  how 
many  horses  have  I  not  seen,  and  heard,  backed  for 
large  sums  in  all  parts  of  the  ring  that,  in  the  then 
state  of  the  ground  and  on  the  particular  course  on 
Avhich  the  race  was  about  to  be  run,  had  no  chance 
whatever,  as  the  result  proved!  Then,  again,  how 
many  horses  on  these  occasions  get  first  past  the 


TIME.  115 

post  that  otherwise  would  Dot  be  iu  the  first  half 
dozen,  even  if  they  got  so  near! 

As  every  racing  man  knows,  the  secret  of  racing 
deiDeuds  to  a  large  extent  on  his  know^ledge  and 
judgment  of  relative  form.  Whatever  opinion  he 
may  entertain  of  a  horse's  particular  merit,  it  cm 
be  of  little  use  to  him  if,  having  l>rought  iiilo  the 
reckoning  the  fact  that  there  are  no  two  courses 
exactly  alike,  he  is  unable  to  adapt  it  to  the  circum- 
stances that  arise,  wherever  it  may  be. 

As,  with  very  few  exceptions,  horses  differ  iu 
speed  on  every  course  they  run,  when  not  over  tlie 
same  ground,  so  the  result  in  all  races  must  neces- 
sarily be  attended  wifh  uncertainty.  The  idea  of 
successful  prognostication,  except  now  and  again 
by  an  off  chance,  really  makes  it  a  matter  for  de- 
rision by  those  taking  the  trouble  to  work  cut  the 
subject  for  themselves.  This,  of  course,  refers  more 
especially  to  the  "old  time''  methods  of  racing,  or 
such  as  we  have  been  only  too  long  familiar  with. 

Since,  however,  the  American  system  of  "track 
riding"  has  been  introduced  on  our  grass  courses, 
racing  generally  has  not  only  improved  hj  the  races 
being  run  at  a  higher  rate  of  speed,  but  by  the 
adoption  of  those  aids  to  scientific  attainment  I 
have  made  it  the  business  of  this  work  to  bring  to 
the  notice  of  my  readers,  we  may  hope  in  the  near 


116  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

future  to  witness  our  eherislied  national  sport 
reach  a  higher  standard  of  excellence  than  in  all 
branches  we  have  enjoyed  hitherto. 

The  system  of  "tracl^  riding"  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred was,  no  doubt,  designed  for  courses  of  a  very 
different  character  to  those  we  have  in  this  country. 
Its  special  purpose  was  to  accomplisli  a  high  rate 
of  speed  on  a  level  course,  and  I  thinly  it  is  very 
much  open  to  question  if  the  system  itself  was  ever 
intended  for  any  other  than  a  level  course. 

Originally  it  must  have  been  a  matter  for  very 
serious  consideration  whether  the  "track  riding" 
system  was  adaptable  to  grass  courses  as  we  have 
them.  However,  events  have  shown,  and  will  con 
tinue  to  show,  that  it  is  not  only  adaptable  to  every 
kind  of  course  we  have,  but  that  it  really  supplies 
a  much  needed  Improvement  upon  our  own  system 
of  race-riding. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NAMING    HORSES. 

It  is  curious  at  the  present  day  liorses  should  be 
running  in  races,  competing  for  stakes,  made  up  of 
what  is  called  "public  money,"  without  a  name  or 
anytliing  to  distinguish  them  one  from  another  be- 
yond a  simple  notification  of  their  pedigi'ees.  Why 
horses  should  thus  be  permitted  to  run  in  races 
under  the  rules  of  racing,  and  allowed  to  compete 
for  public  stakes,  I  could  never  make  out,  certainly 
on  any  grounds  that  were  intelligible.  The  only 
justification  of  it  put  forward  with  any  show  of 
reason  I  have  ever  heard  was  that  "persons  were 
entitled  to  do  as  they  liked  with  their  own." 

To  this  view  of  the  rights  of  individuals  I  should 
not  be  disposed  to  offer  the  least  objection.  Still,  in 
the  case  of  races  in  which  public  money  is  given  or 
subscribed,  either  by  way  of  plate,  or  in  specie,  or  of 
both,   and  in  which  there  is  by  common  consent 


118  FLAT-RACINO    EXPLAINED. 

certain  public  interests  involved,  no  animal  should 
be  eligible  to  run,  nor  should  the  entry  of  any  ani- 
mal be  permitted  to  be  officially  accepted,  not  hav- 
ing a  name,  in  accordance  witli  the  rules  of  racing. 
If  this  salutary  obligation  were  insisted  upon,  and 
the  rule  extended  to  provide  for  it,  it  would  do 
much  to  further  the  interests  of  racing. 

We  have  certainly  moved  on  since  the  time  when 
the  late  Lord  Glasgow,  with  all  i)is  comicalities  and 
whimsicalities  in  tlie  matter  of  naming — or,  rather, 
not  naming — his  horses,  was  amongst  us,  justly 
honored  as  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  turf.  Although 
only  a  youngster  in  those  days,  I  well  rememl>er 
what  a  crop  there  was  of  '.Melbouiiies''  and  '"Birds 
on  the  Wing,"  and  how  he  had  sires  and  dams  and 
grauddams  and  grent  granddams  of  sires  and  dams, 
all  pedigreed,  to  define  as  far  as  it  was  possible 
generations  upon  generations  of  unnamed  horses 
in  most  delightful  confusion. 

Behind  a  dash  of  bluntness,  and  it  may  have  been 
perhaps  of  austerity,  in  his  ordinary  demeanor,  there 
was  little  doubt  there  lurked  in  Lord  Glasgow's  com- 
position a  rare  fund  of  racy  humor.  By  not  naming 
his  horses,  and  thus  in  a  way  bringing  the  "jargon 
of  the  ring,"  as  he  amusingly  called  it,  into  positive 
collapse,  there  is  little  doubt  he  intended  a  huge 
joke.  For  once,  however,  he  named  a  ( olt  (then  no 
beauty  to  look  at)  after  his  friend  and  boon  compau- 


NAMING  HORSES.  119 

ion  General  Peel,  which  partook  of  the  same  racy 
turn,  though  it  merged  historically,  by  the  happen- 
ing of  events,  into  another  and  perhaps  more 
pleasing  vein.  Happily,  Lord  Glasgow's  pet  idea  in 
the  matter  of  nomenclature  did  not  assume  such 
proportions  as  to  become  a  prevailing  fashion;  thus 
to  a  large  extent  we  were  spared  the  derision  of  our 
neighbors  in  not  only  being  a  "nation  of  shopkeep- 
ers," but  that  our  intelligence  did  not  enable  us  to 
provide  names  for  our  race-horses. 

There  is  nothing  more  easy  than  to  find  a  pleas- 
ing, and  at  the  same  time  a  suitable  name  for  a 
horse  intended  to  be  known  to  the  public  in  the  char- 
acter of  a  race-horse.  In  making  a  selection,  it 
should  not  be  overlooked  that,  apart  from  the  mat- 
ter of  taste,  there  is  something  to  be  said  on  the 
question  of  culture,  and  it  will  not  be  everybody  who 
will  care  to  pose  before  a  critical  audience  like  the 
British  public  as  lacking  in  either  of  these.  To  be 
a  suitable  name  it  should  never  go  beyond,  except 
in  very  rare  instances,  ten  letters  in  length,  whether 
the  name  itself  is  simple  or  compound — that  is,  one 
word  or  more. 

It  would  do  much  for  the  best  interests  of  racing 
if  a  higher  standard  were  inculcated  in  the  names 
given  to  horses,  and  if  in  some  way  or  other  people 
could  be  induced  to  get  away  from  the  practice  of 


120  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

alone  looking  for  a  name  as  suggested  by  the  exist- 
ing names  of  the  sire  and  the  dam.  I  believe  this 
method,  providing  as  it  does  a  sort  of  hard-and-fast 
rule  by  vrhieh  people  are  guided  in  the  concoction  of 
names,  has  led  to  the  numberless  feeble  results  that 
come  under  one's  eye  day  by  day.  In  naming  a  colt, 
or  it  may  be  a  Ally,  on  these  lines,  people  do  not  like 
to  be  outdone,  or  to  have  to  take  a  sort  of  back-seat 
to  their  neighbors,  in  the  matter  of  smartness  and 
piquancy,  though  it  may  create  any  number  of 
breaches  in  both  appropriateness  and  finish. 

It  might  give  offence  and  periiaps  wound  the  sus- 
ceptibilities of  some  of  my  most  intimate  friends 
were  I  to  particularize  even  some  from  the  many 
vain  attempts  at  erudition,  or  where  erudition  had 
floundered  so  visibly  as  to  baffle  even  one's  ordinary 
understanding,  so  I  give  it  up.  But  for  all  that,  I 
trust  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  I  do  not  relinquish 
the  desire  to  create  a  new  era  in  turf  nomenclature, 
if  it  be  possible,  in  the  cause  that  uppermost  should 
guide  one's  actions  in  such  a  matter — viz.,  of  the 
turf  itself. 

By  this  I  do  not  mean  to  infer  we  in  this  country 
have  no  well-named  horses.  If  such  were  suggested 
it  would  obviously  be  extremely  incorrect.  Wo  have 
not  only  large  numbers,  the  names  of  w  hich  are  ap- 
propriate and  pleasing  in  every  way,  but  certain 


NAMING  HORSES.  121 

owners  are  remarkable  for  the  skill  and  good  taste 
they  exhibit  in  this  respect. 

While  I  believe  the  well-named  horses  counter- 
balance the  ill-named  ones  by  a  largish  majority, 
still  there  are  plenty  of  the  latter  character  one 
would  wish  to  see,  if  it  were  possible,  so  far  as  the 
names  themselves  are  concerned,  erased  from  the 
records,  for  the  simple  reason  that,  being  inappro- 
priate and  ill-chosen,  they  offend  rather  than  invoke 
enthusiasm,  and  too  frequently  are  as  devoid  of  wit- 
ticism as  they  are  in  one  other  respect — viz.,  of 
polish. 

In  the  paddock  and  on  the  course,  how  our  pleas- 
ure is  marred  when  we  see  a  beautiful  horse  with  an 
uncouth  and  ill-sounding  name!  And  how  little 
there  is  to  excite  one's  mirth  when,  floaiing  on  the 
breeze,  coming,  it  may  be,  from  the  direction  of  the 
ring,  one  hears  a  babble  of  inarticulate  sounds, 
caused  by  persons  vainly  striving  and  struggling  to 
enunciate  an  unpronounceable  and  unintelligible 
names! 

Then,  in  the  chapter  of  accidents,  as  it  were,  bow 
few  ill-named  horses  ever  contribute  by  their  deeds 
anything  to  leave  a  mark  on  the  pages  of  turf  his- 
tory, or,  indeed,  anything  behind  them  to  make  the 
fact  of  their  existence  a  matter  of  record  in  the 
Stud  Book!  In  the  face  of  things,  therefore,  there 
is  no  encouragement  to  give  a  race-horse  an  ill- 


122  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

chosen  name,  but,  on  the  contrary,  everything  to  dis- 
courage it. 

As  I  have  said,  there  are  plenty  of  names--the 
supply  is  almost  inexhaustible — which  may  readily 
be  chosen  within  the  limit  of  fen  fetters  that  will 
do  credit  to  any  selection,  and  at  the  same  time  be- 
come a  pleasing,  not  to  say  complimenitary,  episode 
of  both  colonial  and  international  recognition. 

I  suggest  that  the  names  of  our  race-horses — ani- 
mals that  are  prized  in  some  respects,  without  sense 
of  humiliationi,  as  highly  as  are  the  claims  of  some 
members  of  the  human  species — should  be  named 
after  places,  suitable  in  point  of  selection,  in  the 
British  colonies,  in  the  Indian  Empire,  and  in  that 
part  of  the  Western  world  graced  by  the  presence 
of  our  American  kinsmen. 

Let  those,  therefore,  in  search  of  a  name  for  their 
horses  honor  themselves,  as  they  will  honor  British 
enterprise  and  the  friends  of  Great  Britain  over  the 
seas,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  casting  their  eye 
over  the  index  of  any  good  atlas,  when  they  will 
see  before  them,  in  those  countries  to  which  I  have 
referred,  thousands  of  names,  providing  at  once  all 
that  need  be  desired  to  afford  the  happiest  selection. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TIPSTERS. 

I  cannot  be  expected  to  say  anything  in  favor  of 
the  methods  and  practices  of  a  class  of  individuals 
known  to  tlie  public  as  "tipsters."  For  my  own  part, 
if  I  consulted  my  own  wishes,  I  should  prefer  to  be 
silent,  leaving  it  to  those  having  a  wider  knowledge 
of  the  subject  than  I  possess  to  prescribe  a  remedy 
for  what  undoubtedly  is  a  most  intolerable  evil. 

In  dealing  with  such  a  question  one  can  only  be 
guided  by  w^hat,  under  the  circumstances,  the  best 
interests  of  the  turf  as  a  recognized  national  institu- 
tion demand.  As  it  is  the  duty  of  every  loyal  citi- 
zen to  uphold  and  to  stimulate,  as  far  as  it  lies  in 
his  power,  the  health-giving  enjoyments  of  the  peo- 
ple, so  it  is  equally  his  duty  to  ward  off  every  at- 
tempt by  which  at  any  time  these  may  be  assailed. 

That  the  best  interests  of  the  turf  are  being  as- 


124  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

sailed  by  the  doings  of  tipsters  there  is  no  doubt 
whatever;  and  it  not  only  continues,  but  goes  on  in- 
creasing year  by  year. 

The  methods  employed  by  them  are  so  familiar  to 
most  of  us,  that  anything  in  the  nature  of  detailed 
particulars  would  seem  to  be  quite  unnecessary. 

That  there  are  tipsters  and  tipsters,  in  the  sense 
this  phrase  is  understood,  must  be  admitted.  They 
are  all,  however,  more  or  less  "tarred  with  the  same 
brush,"  inasmuch  as  the  basis  of  operation,  the  idea 
of  their  supposed  business  occupation,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  being  possessed  of  secret  or  stable  informa- 
tion concerning  the  chances  of  success  horses  may 
have  in  races,  to  be  of  advantage  to  others  in  the 
way  of  investments,  though  never  availed  of  by 
themselves,  is  founded  in  falsehood  and  misrep- 
resentation. 

On  the  presumption  of  carrying  on  a  system  of 
business  in  its  character  bona  fide  and  honest,  the 
tipster,  by  the  aid  of  advertisements  in  the  news- 
papers, and  by  circulars  and  pamphlets,  which  are 
distributed  by  thousands,  and,  through  the  postal 
medium,  are  made  to  find  a  way  to  reach  the  hands 
of  every  desired  person  in  schools,  in  colleges,  in 
shops  and  factories,  and  in  private  homes,  there  is 
no  limit  to  the  chances  of  wrong  committed.  That 
a  wrong  is  committed  we  know  only  too  well.     The 


TIPSTERS.  125 

character  of  the  advertisements,  the  outrageous  rep- 
resentations contained  in  circulars  and  pamphlets, 
and  the  inducements  put  forward,  with  unblushing 
effrontery,  intended  to  lead  honest  people  into  ruin- 
ous speculations — all  tell  us  this,  without  need  to  go 
further. 

Still,  the  work  of  destruction  carried  on  by  the 
tipster  class  does  not  end  at  this.  Not  only  do  they 
profit  by  the  sale  of  their  specious  publications,  pre- 
suming to  forecast  results  in  racing,  to  an  enor- 
mous extent,  but,  as  is  well  known,  their  work  is  in 
alliance  with  confederates,  who  also  profit  or  make 
gains  totalling  up  to  colossal  sums  in  the  course  of 
each  succeeding  racing  season.  Of  the  victims  of 
this  treachery  the  police  court  records  from  time  to 
time  tell  us  pratically  more  than  we  care  to  be  in- 
formed of,  w^hile  at  those  places  where  destitution 
finds  a  sort  of  "half-way  house"  those  wishing  to 
know  more  have  only  to  inquire  within. 

Why  does  the  Legislature  permit  tipsters  to  pur- 
sue their  nefarious  calling  in  our  midst?  Can  it  be 
that  what  is  fraud  and  false  pretence  in  other  walks 
of  life  is  not  fraud  and  false  pretence  when  com- 
mitted, with  the  same  intent  by  the  tipster  class? 

We  have  seen  bookmakers,  men  recognized  every- 
where for  their  uprightness  of  conduct  and  honesty 
in  their  dealings,  prosecuted  before  magistrates  for 


126  FLAT-RACING    EXPLAINED. 

pursuing  a  legitimate  calling  in  a  legitimate  way. 
The  authors,  the  real  authors,  of  the  evil  of  betting, 
as  the  moralists  put  it,  however,  are  the  tipsters,  a 
class  of  persons  against  whom  the  moralists  never 
utter  a  word  of  condemnation,  and,  hat  in  hand,  by 
their  silence  invite  to  go  on  and  prosper. 

Why  the  righteous  people  who  prosecuted  Mr. 
Dunn  should  righteously  withhold  prosecution  from 
"Mr.  Tipster"  has  puzzled  me  very  considerably.  If 
they  could  pride  themselves  in  the  former  case  on 
being  guided  by  reason,  if  not  by  wisdom,  surely 
they  will  have  lapsed  into  supineness,  if  not  some- 
thing more  to  excite  one's  pity,  should  they  not  see 
wisdom  to  guide  them  in  the  latter  case. 

In  my  view,  it  has  always  been  absurd  to  endeav- 
or to  associate  the  bookmaker  with  all  the  evils  re- 
sulting from  imprudent  betting.  Betting  is  not  il- 
legal. In  principle,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
discover,  it  in  no  sense  differs  from  that  which  has 
founded  the  institution  of  insurance,  whether  the 
process  be  by  underwriting,  on  land  or  on  sea,  or 
by  policies  guarding  our  lives  while  we  live,  or  our 
property  from  consumption  by  burglars  or  fire.  Be- 
sides, our  chances  of  accident,  in  the  events  of  our 
lives,  are  soothed  by  the  reflection  that  the  odds  of 
about  300  to  1  are  laid  against  our  being  killed  out- 
right; while  damage  to  person,  in  language  we  are 


TIPSTERS.  12  r 

ouly  too  well  made  familiar  with,  "stands  in  for  a 
shop." 

It  has  been  said  if  there  were  no  boolimakers 
there  would  be  no  bacliers,  which,  to  my  thinking, 
is  "taking  hold  of  the  wrong  end  of  the  stick,"  the 
more  correct  way  of  putting  it  being  that  if  tliere 
were  no  backers  there  would  be  no  bookmakers; 
while,  practically,  if  there  were  no  tipsters  there 
would  be  no  backers. 

But  then,  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  no  evil 
arises  from  the  acts  of  legitimate  backers,  a  class 
of  persons  who  have  a  perfect  right,  in  the  exercise 
of  their  judgment,  to  do  as  tliey  like  with  their 
own.  All  the  evil  and  wrongdoing  comes  from  the 
acts  of  Ulegitimate  backers,  a  class  of  persons  need- 
ing to  be  protected  against  themselves.  These  are 
the  victims  of  the  tipster. 

In  their  ignorance  of  racing  and  of  racing  meth- 
ods, and  the  numerous  interests  connected  with  the 
sport,  they  are  readily  beguiled  by  the  fulsome  ex- 
travagances of  the  tipster's  asseverations,  such  as 
their  "wonderful  powers  of  discernment,"  their 
"knowledge  of  stable  policy  and  stable  secrets," 
their  "intimacy  on  all  hands  with  owners,"  the 
"friends  and  boon  companions  of  owners  and  train- 
ers and  jockeys,"  and  of  every  trainer  and  jockey 
whose  name  figures  in  turf  records  or  in  the  lists 


128  FLAT-RAGING    EXPLAINED,  1 

registered  at  Weatherby's.  Then,  the  "staff  of 
watchers"  they  employ  at  every  training  place  in 
the  country,  and  the  "large  sums"  they  pay  for  ex- 
clusive information,  derived  from  sources,  accord- 
ing to  them,  to  be  "truly  astonishing."  Their  pa- 
trons, of  course,  are  among  the  "highest  in  the 
land;"  and  when  asked  for  their  names,  those  most 
honored  on  the  turf  and  society  are  readily  given, 
with  an  assurance  that  baffles  belief. 

It  is  no  use  to  warn  the  "Illegitimate  bacl^er"  of 
his  danger;  if  it  be  possible,  the  danger  should"  be 
removed,  rather,  from  him.  There  is  no  justifica- 
tion for  persons,  however  weak  and  foolish  they 
may  be,  being  permitted  to  be  led  into  evil  by  decep- 
tion and  trickery.  If  persons  must  needs  bet,  let 
them  do  so  by  their  own  initiation.  The  law  should 
rigorously  intervene  to  stop  the  promulgation  of 
inducement,  whether  put  forward  in  a  form  to  be 
specious  or  otherwise;  that  avowedly  intends  to 
urge,  or  even  to  recomme?id  persons  to  risk  money 
by  way  of  backing  horses  in  races.  Should  the  law 
as  it  stands  not  be  sufficient  or  wide  enough  in  its 
interpretation  to  make  penal  a  class  of  offence  such 
as  I  have  pointed  out,  as  daily  growing  upon  us, 
and  encroaching  upon  the  best  interests  of  the  turf, 
then  it  obviously  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Legisla- 
ture to  extend  the  law  for  that  purpose  by  passing 
a  short  act  of  Parliament,  and  that  without  delay. 


Vvi::i.)s;.''^i'  rBiT'-jj  L'D''- r  ;::^y  'v^'^^'  ens 

Cummings  School  of  ;  Medicine  at 

Tufls  UriiV^roily 

200  Westboro  Road 

North  Grafton.  MA  01536 


p 


I 


